NeoFlock
by Talon666
Summary: What if the School had made a back-up flock and decided to try to be nice. bad summary, awesome story First Fanfic,Plz have mercy on me. Multiple POV's OCxOC IggyxOC much later. Rated T, some parts may be graphic for sensitive readers Plz R/R :
1. NeoFlock

The Neo-Flock

I'm warning you. I'm really warning you. Whatever you do, do NOT put down the book. I'm definitely serious on this. Please, just continue reading this. It's about the Neo-flock, the new generation. Sure you heard about Max and the rest of the flock, but do you know what happened behind the scenes? While they were running away and being chased and all that jazz? Well, I can tell you here that what went on behind their story, because that's my story, our story... the Neo-Flock's story. Interested? Keep reading on...

**Author's note: This is the first time i've done anything like this, so please be kind. The story probably won't pick up until Chapter 5 or 6, but it's worth the wait!! Trust me ^-^**


	2. Meeting Talon and Terra

**AN: ****My plans changed for today, so I'm able to start uploading edited chap's today! ^-^ Unfortunately, there won't be a chapter tomorrow. I thank all my devoted readers/reviewers for sticking with me, and I thank all you new readers/reviewers for clicking that "Neo-Flock" title and reading this fanfic. For new Readers: ****Talon and Terra are the two main POV's in Neo-Flock. Character descriptions will be out in a later chapter,** **maybe 3 or 4. ****^-^ Please Review! Thanks**

Talon

Beneath the emerald-colored leaves I laid in wait, with my belly on the ground and my chin resting on a nice soft pile of dirt. Closing my eyes for a second, I could almost taste the meat that would come my way—that thought made my mouth water and my stomach growl in delight and anticipation.

_ "The sooner I get this done, the sooner my food will be served_," I thought to myself, slowly slinking backwards from my position in the bushes, moving like an army soldier as they left their hideout to report to base.

I got up on my knees, my hands reaching up and rustling up my spiky strands of hair to get the leaves out. I was distracted, basically. The feel of the undergrowth and soil, the fragrant aroma of the flowers, the sweet chirping of the birds…I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice the prey coming until later. Next thing I knew, my sensitive nose had already picked up the scent of the fresh kill I had just made, my hand closed in a fist over the bird's dead body, it's fading warmth telling me I had just grabbed it on instinct.

As I looked down and moved my other hand from my hair to shift the bird around, I noted with half-amusement that I had crushed the bird's neck as I grabbed it, so it died instantly. I was so self-absorbed with my prize that I didn't even notice the figure approaching me until I felt a breath on the back of my uncovered neck, making me freeze up for a minute and sending shivers down my spine.

"What do you have there, Inu?" a sudden voice asked.

I frowned, then jumped and whipped around as something sharp poked the small of my back—when did her nails get so sharp? I then noticed the bird was gone; a mess of blood and guts and feathers were remaining in my now-empty hand.

"That's totally gross! Father's going to kill you for doing that." She sighed at the dead bird resting gingerly in her free hand, kneeling down and—digging a small "grave" with her free hand—placed the bird in it and covered it up. My heart fluttered slightly as she stood to look at me, lips curled into a small frown and free hand on her hips; I also saw that she had a stick in that free hand that she had probably poked me with.

"I'm sorry, Terra! Father said if I didn't hunt I wouldn't eat for a week!" I complained.

Sure, I was exaggerating. But Father would do that sometimes, and be very, _very_ mean if we didn't follow orders. Plus, I was really, really hungry. She laughed at my upset expression, and turned away while shaking her head.

"…You are such a nitwit."

I sputtered in response, and she shushed me, holding a finger to my lips. If Terra wasn't the leader of the pack, I would have probably knocked her one then and there. But then again, she's also really pretty and a bit temperamental when she wants to be. But that's not the point. I don't mean to make a flirty impression (I'm not in love with her, by the way; just…a **small** crush), but she is a girl that every guy would want for himself.

Terra is pretty tough for the slim profile she gives off; her slender arms and legs built up like a dancer, and as graceful as a swan. She has auburn hair that falls down to her waist like a waterfall due to her washing it **EVERY SINGLE NIGHT** to keep it shiny. (She keeps it in a braid intertwined with black ribbons).

Her eyes could be called a work of art, just on color alone. She used to have blue eyes that were the sparkling blue color of the sea—I know this because I had seen a picture of her before she came here—, but after the scientists screwed her genetic code up like they did with the rest of us, the colors had drastically changed. Her left eye is a tawny gold, like a hawk, but the other is like an opal color—bits of blue, purple, green, and white all mixed together.

She's a bit celestial-looking unlike the rest of us in the pack—normal, she called us at one point—as her skin is a pale mix between peach and white chalk. The scientists think it's the genetic mutations that make her as pale as she is, but most of us in our group aren't so sure about that conclusion.

Today she's wearing a black tank top with a wolf's paw set with talons on it (the symbol of our little group, the Neo-Flock) and a pair of green camo-cargos paired with black army boots. Her hair is in its braid, but this time one of the black ribbons is replaced with a camo one to match her clothes. She's looking at me now…wait, what? Staring? Was I staring at her too long? Oops.

"Why the heck are you staring at me, Inu? It's bugging me. We have to get back." Terra replied with a tone of annoyance that always put me a little on edge. Plus, she called me _Inu_ (Japanese for dog, I think), which always insults me (Everyone knows I'm a cat person, I mean, I share more than 5% of my freaking DNA with them)! And, as usual with that tone, I groaned, rubbing my temples with the fingers of my hand that wasn't blood-stained. _That_ hand wiped itself on a tree stump, and then my black sweatshirt.

"Terra, I just caught my first kill and you buried it, and now you expect me to just do what you say?" I whined, stamping my foot like that of an angry child. After all, she _was_ being annoying! Terra growled at me, clenching her fists to prevent herself from strangling me.

"Yes, and we are going back home. **Now**." she growled.

"No!" I countered stubbornly. A sudden gust of wind from her fast movement stunned me for one minute. Then there was the pain. Lots of pain.

"YEOW!" I yelped as she grabbed a few of the whiskers (Yeah, you read that right, WHISKERS) on my right cheek and mercilessly yanked at them.

"Let's go Taly, or we're going to be late." she snarled at me as we—painfully—walked back to the School.

Really it was more of her dragging me back but that's not the point. All I could think of was how sore my whiskers were going to be in the morning!

**AN:** **NEXT UPDATED CHAPTER OUT SATURDAY THE 26****th**


	3. The Rest of the Flock

**AN: ****Sorry for not updating on the weekend like I said, a lot of stuff came up X_X but I'm gonna catch up today! For new readers, please enjoy! ^-^ and review PLZ! In this chapter, Terra describes the rest of her Flock.**

Terra

I hate to admit it and submit to my more feminine side, but as soon as I saw the dead bird in Talon's hand, I thought I was going to be sick. I managed to hold a straight face and—unwillingly on his part—drag Talon back home to the School. He was flailing and whining of course, but it didn't matter to me at any point at all; Father was waiting for us and to be late…would be a problem.

That place, the School, is the only one he, the others of the pack/flock, and I knew to be considered home. All of us have similar stories; our parents abused us as infants and left us for the dead, and then our "caretakers" came and saved us from certain doom. They had to very slowly help us along in our years of young development, since they had to heal us 'from the inside out', so they say.

In all aspects, you would think we were somewhat normal. But we aren't. In all seriousness, we are different from our caretakers in ways you couldn't imagine. They say, though, that their abilities came and went every so often, and many of them prove it through the tests they run on us; knowing everything in those machines, making medicines…first aid too.

The School itself is home and paradise to us. Made of white alabaster brick in the midst of a forest—that itself surrounded by a swamp—the School is both five floors above and about three below ground. We all stay in the uppermost floor: Yours truly, Demi, Talon, Juli, Zell, Bree, and Lexis.

One big happy family of five girls to only two guys. Plus? Maybe.

As I threw Talon into the elevator in the plush, five star hotel-ish appearance of the School's lobby, he turned to glare angrily at me, tenderly straightening the whiskers on his right cheek. I started laughing, because his eyes and hair were quickly turning hot pink. That's the thing about Talon; he's a conglomerate of different genetics.

Oh, you didn't get what I meant earlier when I said we were different so you don't have a clue what I'm saying? We all were embedded with animal DNA that helped "save" us. Since they said Talon was on the verge of death, they had to give him more animal DNA than the rest of us.

Of course, Talon didn't believe that, and personally I think he dislikes the scientists making him so different. But back to his genetics…let's see…Talon is part falcon, part chameleon, part leopard, and part bloodhound (*whew*). I don't know percentages 'cause I hate math (but awesome with grammar), but that should be all of them.

And because of the chameleon DNA, one of his changes is that his hair and eye color change according to what his emotions are, making him terrible at lying and acting. And judging by the way the roots of his spiky head spread the pink to the tips and his eyes are pink, he was pretty darn embarrassed.

"Calm down, okay." I snap, "It was only a bird. We have to get everyone together anyway, because Father wants to talk to us again. Something about a new mission."

Talon cringed at the word "Father", and a spark of regret went through my mind for slapping that in his face. Talon and Father were never on the best of terms. Ever.

As we began our incredibly long upward journey towards the level of our flock's residence (the elevators were all _agonizingly_ slow), Talon leaned his head on my shoulder, and, feeling more relaxed, I finally let go of the railing. It was weird that everyone in my Flock had an almost instinctual fear of small spaces, but no one could remember anything that would have given us all claustrophobia.

So there we were, Talon and I, standing there, together, waiting. It was pretty nice, just to relax for once and not think of anything but the moment of calm. I was staring at the camera in the elevator and Talon had his eyes closed—the way he was breathing, I could have sworn he was asleep…on my shoulder…I rested my head gently on his, suppressing a girly "eep", and mentally laughing at myself for crushing on a guy who probably was more interested in Juli than me, and who was practically like family to me.

But that little romantic moment (and my daydreaming) ended, however, once the jerky stops started up. Stupid elevator probably was breaking again—big whoop. Both of us jumped up and grabbed the bars while becoming prepared for the worst, claustrophobia fueling our imaginations with all kinds of scenarios of us dying in that small, contained space, but thankfully the worst never came. (Luckily, the lovey-dovey moment was forgotten. For now, at least.)

The elevator stopped, the doors sliding open, showing the multitudes of bright colors that assaulted the white walls that marked the one room we all slept in. We were the cream of their genetic crop, so we got the best of everything. It was hard-earned though, and I liked it like that.

I smiled and clapped my hands together as I left the elevator (Talon almost got stuck in the elevator, so he quickly latched onto me as I left; I pushed him onto his bed happily.)

"Okay! I want a roll-call, please!" I yelled. All of the others—Demi, Lexis, Zell, Bree, and Juli—promptly stopped what they were doing and came over at their own leisurely pace.

Demi, being the closest, was the first person to come towards me. He's taller than me, and three years my senior. He's the only other guy in the Neo-Flock, so he spends a lot of time hanging out with Talon, and as a result, helps Talon play pranks on us girls.

His brown hair is still swept over his eyes; it's his 'windblown bang' style he always wears. He prefers his hair shoulder-length, and keeps it in a low ponytail tied with black ribbon—that's where he shows his ranking in the School (Since black has no color, it meant that we were the top—no flaws whatsoever. We were everything.). He wears baggy clothing, and likes dark colors as I do. Today he's chosen black sweats and a loose navy long-sleeved shirt. Demi is surprisingly social for the ominous look he gives off, and he keeps insisting we talk about our problems and discuss anything bothering us.

One interesting thing about Demi that I should probably mention is his eyes. Contrasting his pale complexion, his eyes are the color of onyx stones, and have a barely recognizable pupil. He wears sunglasses because of this, because he's very self-concious about the way his eyes look, but today those dark glasses are resting on top of his head, while his dark eyes stare straight at me. He smiles and moves aside before Bree can tackle him.

Ah…Bree. Compared to Demi, she's a bright burst of color in our room. Almost like a neon sign bright against the dark clothes that all of the other older kids liked to wear. Her hair is up in a high pony tail with the ends curled and dyed a lime yellow. The hair nearest her scalp is a shocking bright blue, and her bangs are green. Neon green to be exact.

She's wearing a hot pink strapless sundress with white socks and a matching sash that is tied tightly about her waist. The black ribbon of rank is tied about her neck like a choker necklace, all neat and pretty. She's definitely got a figure for a girl about sixteen years old.

Also, she's Talon's older sister (you know, her relation to Talon is probably why her hair is so brightly colored.), and she takes every opportunity to prank him and Demi mercilessly. But she and Talon do love each other beneath the prank war.

One quick thing I forgot to mention about myself before I go on; I'm only fourteen years old and more than half the flock is older than me, but everyone accepts me as leader. But moving on. Bree is now pouting at Demi for not letting her tackle him, and Talon—on cue—moves and steps into the crossfire to make peace.

Talon. Spiky hair and round eyes that change color depending on his mood. Highly enhanced senses which make him very hard to sneak up on, plus whiskers on his cheeks, which make him adorable when he uses the puppy-pout (or would it be the kitten-pout? I don't know.)

He's built in a way that many think of as average for a fifteen-year-old boy, but it's much more than that. I am proud to have him as an ally and a close friend. He's the closest one in the Flock with age to me, so he takes my place if I'm not around. Currently he's in a very good mood from what I can tell, because his hair and eyes are a beautiful, glittering, silvery tone and that usually means he's as happy as a bug in a rug. (Don't ask where I got that, please.)

He's wearing a black sweatshirt with the word 'REBEL' emblazoned on the front in gold, and some dark-toned cargos. I laughed this morning when he came out of his closet with his clothes on because it was very similar to what I was wearing, but he shook his head and, with the stubbornness of an eight year old, wore it. His ribbon is oddly worn wrapped about the small hoop earring in his right ear that he never, _ever_ takes out. It has three charms on it, which make the scientists laugh when they see them, because all of them are little fish.

Due to his jumbled DNA, Talon has a lot of odd habits that resemble a cat's, like taking cat-naps during the day, loving anything related to fish, chasing small, moving objects, and a disliking of getting wet. We tease him about his weird habits every chance we get, because it's hilarious to see a teenage boy chase after a toy mouse every time you throw it. Pausing from my examination of my second-in-command and Partner-In-Crime (Shhh. Our little secret.), I turned to the side as the two little ones I adore as my younger "sisters"—Lexis and Zell—came over with their dolls in hand.

Lexis and Zell, through looks alone, would never look like they could be related, but they are so close in age and in friendship with one another they could have been twins. Lexis has black hair and gray eyes that adds to the already overwhelming cuteness she can give when she pouts at you.

She likes frills and ribbons like a girl should at her age, so she's wearing a green sundress with all sorts of little black ribbons on it; she always has a black bracelet on to show her own rank. (She's Juli's little sister, but we'll talk about Juli later.)

Zell, on the other hand, is a blonde with bi-colored eyes like me, but they are brown and blue instead of the opal and gold that are my own. She's a really sweet girl once you get to know her, and she likes wearing plain, simple clothing. She's wearing an orange shirt (orange is her favorite color, oranges are her favorite fruit, carrots are her favorite vegetable, etc.) and a white skirt.

She prefers to run barefoot around the School, and the scientists don't mind most of the time, unless she's played outside, then they hate it when she tracks mud on the floors, because _they_ have to clean it up! (ain't it grand being top-dog?) Her rank ribbon is tied about her arm like an arm-band, and prefers to wear her hair down like Lexis does. They both smile at me with their cute little eight-year-old smiles (Scary if you think about how those faces can make you do anything) and sit down as Juli moves from her music stand to be with us.

Juli…I admire her so much. She carries herself quietly and carefully, and is very, _very_ smart. Regal as she may appear for her full nineteen years of age (She's the oldest out of all of us. Seriously), she does have a kind side that we all love and adore, but just don't get her mad; Talon did that once...*shivers*...well let's just say he won't do it again anytime soon.

She has auburn hair like mine, though there are streaks of brown in it that you can only see in certain lighting. Her eyes are a brilliant shade of gray, and they always seem to hide whatever she's feeling. She's one of the strongest of us in terms of willpower; you could tickle her for an hour and not get so much as a giggle. Graceful and agile, she wears her ribbon tied intricately about her right hand as ranking. I don't know why, but she does.

She loves to wear long dresses and the one she was wearing was a plain, form-fitting lavender satin dress with a clingy skirt that has two slits up to the thighs and spaghetti straps. Lexis is her younger, biological sister as we found out a few years back when the little one came to live with us. She's barefoot right now, but it looks like she doesn't care the least bit. Calmly, she looked at me and, giving a simple nod, took her seat, ready for the fun to begin (sarcasm there, ladies and gents.)

"Father wants to talk with us right away." I said, bracing myself for the fireworks that were about to fly.

I heard Demi take in a small breath and heard Talon softly hiss—remember that the latter of the boys is never on the best of terms with Father and dislikes his orders. The former was just a little wary about the elder man. Juli and Bree looked at each other and then caught the gazes of Zell and Lexis, who seemed nervous and unsure because of Talon's reaction toward what I had said. .

"I think he has a mission for us, and he wants to see us." I continued, unwavering, "I'm almost positive it isn't anything bad…"

With that, they seemed calm enough to nod their approval, but I could see that Talon was shifty on his feet, running though his hair and eyes were still the same color as it was before; that rich, shiny silver, but his expression was different, and I only noticed that when I saw his face fully. It was stern and he was biting the inside of his lower lip.

"…Let's go." I turned and opened the elevator again with the push of a button, and we all filed inside silently.

Demi and Talon shifted towards the back, while the little ones sat in-between. The three of us girls sat in the front of the others;Juli, me, then Bree from left to right. As the 'moving box of doom' (as Lexis called it sometimes) brought us down towards our destination, Bree started chattering on past missions we had done. We _loved_ going on missions for the School, because it gave us a chance to show off how good we are.

Eraser decimations, collecting data, ect were the usual, and we had all done a lot of those. We were probably the best mission team at the School, but soon the whole flock was arguing on what person did something right, who screwed up…The doors opened while we were arguing and I totally didn't realize it until I saw that the doors were open. I stopped abruptly, a blush crossing my cheeks as my pack silenced behind me at the sight of our "Father" glaring at us.

**AN:**** Next chapter, we meet "Father", and the Neo-Flock are put to a test.**


	4. Flight Test: FAIL!

**AN:**** Now you meet "Father," the Head of the Neo-Flock's School. And Terra gets hurt!**

"I…heard you all the way down here, my children." he said quietly, frustration barely restrained.

His piercing hazel eyes hit each of us, and I felt Zell and Lexis shrink away from behind me. That was something we all feared at the School, getting the piercing glare from Father

"Come." he commanded.

The man watching us, our "Father", wore the traditional white coat that showed he was one of the caretakers, but his sleeves had a sole black strip running from shoulder to wristlet. He had raven black hair streaked with gray, and it was cut shoulder length like Demi. His ponytail was loosely held and his bangs half-concealed his round-rimmed glasses with the darkened lenses. Behind that were the hazel eyes we saw earlier. He was a thin, skinny man, with enough stamina and intellect to knock out Talon with just his vocabulary—and that's another reason why Talon hates him so much. The two could orally battle it out and Talon would always lose.

He turned and walked away, with each of us following in turn. We were on the main floor, but the elevator took us to a different area-It can do that, you know. Just opens up from the other side. The button combo to make it travel horizontally is a secret, so I can't really say it now.

Just in case Talon was worried about Father, I turned my head back to check on him to see him clenching his fists while his hair—halfway between silver and pink-changed back to silver as did his eyes as soon as he noticed me looking at him.

As Father opened the door, I seized the opportunity to take another look at Talon while the rest of my group filed out onto the football field-sized-with-twenty-foot-high-walls of a courtyard that served as our training grounds. He was still silver, so I decided he was fine.

The others paused in the middle of the field, staring at one another. Seven sets of wings were existent then, feathers gleaming in the light. I guess I forgot to say that along with the many other non-human things about us, we were all 2% bird, so we had wings. Juli's were a bright ruddy color on the outside and mocha on the inside; Bree's were the reverse of that. Zell's were white and Lexis's were a dark-gray. Demi's were a dark gray on the inside and black fading to a maroon-ish color on the outer wings. Talon's wings were black as tar, but his primary feathers (the ones that line the bottom of the wing) were pure white—I mean really, if he went out in the snow, his wings would look contorted because those feathers would blend in so well.

Mine…well...I always had to be the awkward one, hm? They were marbled. dark brown, which faded to an off-white tone on the front. The inner feathers were gray speckled with beige. I personally loved the color of my wings; it makes me unique. As far as I'm concerned, our wingspan isn't really important in this conversation, but let's put it this way; Arms outstretched, you have to picture another hand's length from middle finger's tip to wrist to catch the span; with the exception of Talon, whose wings have been measured at fifteen feet from tip to tip.

In any case, I spread out my own wings and, letting them flap gently, managed to float myself over to the group as Father came walking over from his spot near the door.

"Alright…Flight Test A. Now." he said firmly, but with no sense of the anger from earlier.

The seven of us bent our knees and with a burst of energy sprang up towards the top of the wall. We moved in a spiral staircase style, the way we always did; myself at the top, followed by Talon, Demi, Bree, Juli, Zell, and Lexis. We preformed a lot of mid-air dives, flips, and hairpin turns as we gained altitude.

I noticed as we reached the horizon point of the walls that Father had two other scientists with him—a black-haired, broad-shouldered male and a slender brunette, but I couldn't recognize them at the moment. I suddenly felt chills run down my spine, like somehow that female scientist was going to be trouble in the future, but I put it down to adrenaline-induced paranoia.

We landed on the scaling of the wall—again, all of us in perfect unison; we had practiced Flight Test A so many times we could almost do it in our sleep. I watched in amusement as the male scientist came out onto the field, waving his arms frantically. The woman was taking notes and Father was watching us carefully. This apparently was a new test—avoid the scientist? Really now—I thought Father was better than that. This would be a piece of cake.

"Lexis. Down at three. Zell. Down at six." I said in my 'leader' voice, "Count by threes and dive from there."

They all nodded, and I started tapping my booted foot against the stone, loud enough for my group to hear. They all grabbed the edges on their turns and pushed off as if diving off a diving board in swimming, wings folded in slightly and heading down, down…they let out their wings at the last minute, swooping upwards, preformed the aerial stunt they were best at, then floating back down to Earth. Talon's voice shook me out of my intense observations and almost made me jump three feet in the air.

"I've got bad feeling, Terra…" Talon said worriedly. I turned, smiling at Talon, who was now the last person perched on the wall besides me.

"Don't worry about it, Taly. GOGOGO!" I yell happily.

He did a quick double take at his new nickname, then mock-saluted me.

"YES DRILL SERGEANT!" he yelled, before jumping off the wall, doing an unnecessary mid-air flip to show off before unfurling.

I swear that boy couldn't get enough out of pushing my competitive buttons. While I will admit him being the best of the Flock in terms of flying agility (flips, turns, take-offs, etc.), I was by far the _fastest_ flyer out of all of us, so I would enjoy the look on his face when I swooped past him.

I counted to three, and then pushed off after him…falling…falling…I realized I couldn't stop. My wings weren't opening—they wouldn't catch enough wind at this rate for me to safely land. I was going to crash. HARD. And the result was probably not going to be pretty.

"GUYS!" I cried out, my body flailing around.

I saw Demi and Talon rush onto the field as the scientist who was all frantic before raced towards the other scientist and Father…I thought I saw Father's angry face as I crashed into my friend's ill-prepared arms and we tumbled into a mess of limbs and feathers. And all I could say out of this was "Ow."

"Terrra!" Zell pined as the girls raced over to help me up. I was seriously hurting, enough to make Zell worried.

"Owowow…" I whined softly, and Bree patted my head.

"…Dear God, what did you do…" She murmured, and tried to turn my head to see what happened…but the sudden pain made me bite my tongue and have to turn all the way around with some difficulty.

Talon apparently did a face-plant into the ground when I crashed down from the sky, and Demi was on his back, his dark eyes staring up blankly at the sky.

"You're sitting on Talon's head right now, Terra." he said, sitting up and panting for breath, "And by the way, you knocked the wind out me too when you landed."

He spit a couple of black feathers out of the corner of his mouth as Bree pulled Talon's head out of his dirty grave, the boy coughing up the dirt.

*Cough* "…Mental note: Never make yourself a dirt couch." Talon coughed, spitting wads of mud out of his mouth, "How can worms like this stuff? YUCK!"

I laughed weakly, mentally checking my emotional state. Panicked but okay. Physical state? All in all, a bruised shoulder, possibly the collarbone, and a broken wrist. I, however, easily fixed the latter, as I tore the bottom of my tank-top with my good hand to wrap my wrist with.

I saw out of the corner of my eye that Talon's eyes and face quickly flashed to bright pink from its previous silver state and he whipped his head around, his back to me. Maybe I had torn too much of my shirt off, because it went from being fully covering to completely exposing my midriff, which was not bad If I do say so myself.

I finished wrapping the makeshift bandage around my injured wrist, and looked over my good shoulder at Father, who shook his head disappointingly; apparently I had done something wrong.

"Why don't you guys go ahead back inside and eat?" Father said to us with a concealed sigh.

We wearily complied to Father, due to the fact that jumping up and flying around that high all the way up, all the aerial acrobatics, then diving that fast took a bunch of energy, and plus, I was hurting all over. The mention of food sounded good. Really good. As we all walked out, however, Father lightly grasped me on my good arm and held me back a bit.

"I want to talk to you after dinner, alright?" he whispered in my ear.

I nodded in acceptance, and he smiled, patting my good shoulder. I walked with the others, and saw Talon waiting for me at the end of the hall. As we walked up, I thought about some things, and had totally no clue what was going to happen right after dinner; as far as I was concerned, my mind was fixated on the thought of food.

Talon

Dinner passed by quickly without any words, because we were too busy stuffing our faces. We all looked at Terra as we ate. She apparently remained calm during dinner, eating without meeting any of out gazes. If she was still in pain, she didn't show it. As I gnawed through my turkey leg (Coupled with gobbling down the mashed potatoes and peas that went with it. Yum~) I felt a small sense of dread crawl up my spine.

It's kind of an off and on thing, but I have kind of a slight sixth sense about bad things before they happen. But since I couldn't think of anything that it might be, so I ignored it for now and continued eating. Since the cafeteria was for the other mutants and the caretakers, we had to stay in our room and eat. But it was okay, since we preferred to be with each other anyway.

After dinner, Terra was grabbed up by Juli and Bree and the five girls fled to the bathrooms first. I groaned—that meant boys had to take care of the dishes, and water was a thing that I didn't really like, or dislike. Baths were okay because the water was still, but constantly moving water that could splash you? No way on this—

"I'll take care of the stuff tonight. You guys get ready for bed." Terra said from behind us.

I turned around, my face getting flushed at the sight of Terra in her tank-top nightgown made of that black silk she likes so much. It was pretty modest and plain, but just seeing her in it…my god, she looked beautiful. Demi was murmuring something about her smelling bad from not taking a shower, but I shushed him as Terra—with a slight limp that was hard not to notice—wandered to the sink and started our job.

"I…uh...okay…" I murmured, another sense of dread going up my spine as I raced Demi to the shower. Juli and Bree were tucking the younger girls into bed by the time I came from the bath, shaking my wet mess of finally dirt-free hair.

"Where's Terra?" I asked, that dang sixth-sense crawling towards my brain for the third time today.

"She just left with Father, to talk about what happened today. The dishes are done, so you are free on that. Let's go to sleep, Taly~" Bree said with a yawn.

I laughed and pushed Bree playfully on the shoulder for the unwanted nickname, though my mind was elsewhere. Where did Terra go? When would she get back? What was going on?

"I'm going to take a walk, Bree, and I'll be right back." I said quickly, "And also, never call me Taly again."

She mockingly saluted and scrambled into bed as I looked to Juli, who was hugging Zell goodnight. She turned and looked at me after the younger one snuggled to her pillow. Even though we weren't siblings like I was with Bree, we could still understand each other in that mental sense. '_Go'_, her expression seemed to say to me.

As silently as I could, I slipped out the door (closing it behind me, of course) and raced down the hallway. I knew that I couldn't look for too long, because my cat-nap was about to kick in.

I know how ridiculous that sounds, but unlike normal people, I _need_ to sleep at certain times of the day and night, it's something I can't control. One minute I'll be bouncing off the walls and the next I'll be out like a light. After trying to remember the general direction of where Terra headed after dinner, I started my search.

**AN:**** Where's Terra? What could be happening to her? Read the next chapter!**


	5. Don't Take Off Her Wings!

**Author's Note: This chapter contains material that may stretch the "T" rating I gave this story, so I'd advise not to read if you have a weak stomach. If you do, enjoy! ^-^**

My expert senses brought me in the right direction (Terra still smelled of the new-cut grass of the training-grounds and the flowers in the forest, so it was easy to track her scent. Makes me wonder why she didn't shower while she could have.) I came into an unfamiliar hallway and decided to follow it down. At the end of the corridor, I saw Father escort Terra around a corner into a long hallway. Quietly, slowly—it took at least five minutes, because I was being careful for motion-sense cameras—I slunk down the hallway, stealthy as the cat that I had been bonded with (let's hear it for the cats!).

Just as I thought I was home free, Father turned around in the doorway of a room that they were going into and looked down the hall, as If he knew that I was following him. I froze, praying that I was invisible or something so I wouldn't get caught. After what seemed like ages, Father finally shrugged his shoulders and closed the door.

I mentally sighed with relief, because if I had gotten caught, I had no idea what would have happened to me. I raised my hand to my forehead to wipe away the sweat that had gathered during the suspense, but I couldn't see my hand. I moved under a security light to try and see it better. But under the light, it looked like my sleeve was floating in midair.

Okay, mental WTF moment. My body was totally invisible. Sudden realization hit me like a baseball bat: I had discovered a new ability—invisibility. That's why Father didn't see me in the hall; he couldn't. This would come in handy…until I realized that my clothes didn't change with me. That would definitely be a problem if I needed to go full-on invisible. I crept along the rest of the hall until I reached the door of the room where Terra had gone into.

I was starting to have second thoughts about my little spy mission, until I heard a blood-curdling scream of pain coming from the room. Years of living with that voice let me recognize the scream as Terra's. Someone or something in that room was putting Terra through some sort of torturous hell. And half of me didn't want to know what it was.

After a fierce mental argument with myself, I cracked open the door and looked inside. It was very dark but my sensitive eyes picked up a few things: One, Terra was strapped down to a metal table. Two, Father and some scientists were crowded around her. Three, I saw one of Terra's beautiful wings on the ground in a pool of blood. I couldn't see anything else because of the lack of light in the room.

After another, almost feral scream of pain, I was almost ready to see my turkey leg dinner again. I was praying to something that I could see what was happening. Suddenly, I could see everything as if someone had flicked a light switch (night-vision courtesy of animal DNA). Unfortunately, I now could clearly see Terra crying out in pain while she was covered in her own blood, lying strapped down on her stomach. As she thrashed about, I heard someone say something like, "She's going into shock! Give her more anesthesia!"

I flinched, instinctively holding my hand to my mouth to stop the yell that would have come out as a scientist jabbed a full needle into my best friend's back, right between her bloody shoulder blades. Terra yelped and thrashed about a bit, then gradually started to calm down to the point where I thought she was asleep. I was feeling a little faint, signaling I was about to collapse into sleep.

"_No!_" I thought, "_if I fall asleep, they'll catch me_." I started to black out, but not before I heard the phrase that would haunt me forever. Father said in a voice that sounded completely evil and blood-chilling,

"Don't worry Terra, I'll always be right next to you, here for you, to help you. This was all just a nightmare, my darling. You'll wake up and this will all have been a bad dream."

The last thing that I registered before blacking out was seeing the scientists remove Terra's other wing, and I think I heard a scientist yell "What's _HE_ doing down here?" from behind me. I felt a sting on my shoulder, then passed out into blissful unconsciousness.

Terra

It hurt. It really hurt. My back felt like it was on fire, and it wasn't helping that the whole flock was sitting on it.

"…get'm off…" I murmured through a groan as I struggled to get up. I was lying on my stomach in a white room, with my head resting in a white, puffy pillow. I knew I wasn't in my own bed, because my pillow was dark blue and had white swirls on it. And I would have seen Talon staring at me with that blank expression on his pretty little face. Yes, that was sarcasm, darling. And also yes, Talon _does_ watch me sleep. In any case, I heard a door open and my head slowly turned while I winced with new-found pain.

"Father, what happened…my back hurts…" I murmured loudly, and I heard small gasps as my pack/flock came with Father over to my side. I grasped Lexis's little hand, my eyes locked with hers, and I tried to smile amid the pain.

"Your wings are bandaged, mama." she murmured quietly, "What happened?"

Mama was the nickname Lexis sometimes gave me when she was concerned or scared about something going on, and it made other people laugh when they heard her speak like she did.

"I don't know, Lexis…" I reply, trying to clear the fog in my head, "I was with Father…"

I knew all eyes would immediately be on him. He looked ready to answer, but before anybody asked any questions, I had Demi carefully help me move so that I was relaxing against maybe three or four pillows, my bandaged wings resting out-folded.

"You had collapsed in pain due to your wings." Father explained, "We found a series of nerve breaks that we had to carefully repair, which gives the reason to why your wings wouldn't open. The breaks were so bad, we had to replace some of the nerves, which helps solve the question about your current pain. You screamed also during that surgery because your body needed more painkiller than we first thought, which is why your voice might be hoarse."

He was right, in a way; my throat also hurt so I couldn't speak above a whisper. I groaned softly in pain, turning my head away to stare into Talon's eyes…from another hospital bed. Confused, we looked at each other, and as I was to ask about why he was there, but Father explained quickly about the reason why.

"He was sleep-walking, and one of the lower-ranked mutants thought of him as an enemy and tranquilized him. Apparently, they said he hit his head once he fell to the floor."

I heard him give something that sounded like a half-growl, half sigh of relief, and before I could say anything I felt a hand on my arm. Turning my head quickly (and flinching with the pain), I met the dark eyes of Demi over the tinted lenses of the 'I'm too cool for you' glasses he loved to wear. I was then assaulted on the front by an innocent hug from Lexis and Zell.

"We want you to be okay, Terra! Get better soon!" They said in unison.

I nodded, feeling sleepy. Father, definitely noticing, turned and scooted everyone out with hushed words and conversations. Turning back to me after everyone left, he murmured something about not being shocked about the color of my wings and then left. Confused, I turned towards the wing that was closest to my line of sight and noticed the bandages were darker beneath it, when they should have been lighter because of my inner wing feathers. Deciding to ignore it for now, I leaned my head back on the pillows and abruptly fell asleep—Seems my body needed more time for rest.

Over the next couple of days I became restless and bed-ridden as I healed, drifting between uneventful days (save for the routinely visit of doctors, Father, and the Flock bringing my meals) and dreamless nights. I used to have such vivid, beautiful dreams that Juli could accurately paint on the papers and the walls of our room. And now…there was nothing. No dreams at all. Nothing but darkness. Talon and I still slept near each other; Father wouldn't dare move either of us away from each other if he cared about his life (Talon is a _little_ bit over-protective of me).

As I awoke the final morning, I was surprised to see that Talon was already awake and sitting up in bed, staring at the door almost expectantly. What really shocked me though, was that he looked normal. No awkward hair and eye colors. He seemed to look the most human he'd ever look. Which was saying something, because of his whiskers. His hair color was a rich brown hair color and eyes of a dark emerald shade. I never noticed that I was blushing furiously until he turned to look at me and I turned away quickly, noting that my cheeks felt warm. The door opened then, and the color drained to my natural pale skin tone as Father entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"Terra…" He started to say, then paused and turned to look at Talon, who at the moment was glaring daggers at Father. Smiling nervously at him, he made his way to the side of my bed that was the farthest away from him. "Both of you are recovered enough to leave, and the others are coming shortly to bring you both back." I nodded at him, and I could feel Talon intently watching us as Father spoke again, though this time closer towards me. "And Terra…if anything goes wrong, if you need anything at all, I am here for you. Do not forget. I will be right here to help you…"

I nodded my head. Something about the last thing he said made a spark of fear in me, but I ignored it. While nodding, I stole a glimpse at Talon and I noticed his hair had turned bright red at the tips of his spikes. It scared me slightly because I had never seen that color before, and Talon had a look of anger on his normally calm face. I personally had never seen Talon look so angry, he normally didn't go any farther than really annoyed. Father, who was acting a little nervous because of the glares from Talon aimed at him, placed his hand gingerly on my head, and Talon's hair color immediately changed back to the rich brown and he turned away, almost as if he was confused at what Father was doing.

After one last checkup, Talon and I were finally released. Much to the happiness of my flock, we both looked a lot better than before. Talon's emotional state got close to normal again, so I felt a little more at ease, but I was going to talk to him about what blood red hair meant as an emotion.

Oh, and about what Father meant about my wings…the color had changed. Changed from their marble tones to a gray, ashy-hued color. Like charcoal after it's been all used up. They were pretty…but they were really, _really_ heavy. It took me a while, but I managed. Talon and I were rushed back to our room and were forced to tell all about our hospital experience. After explaining how absolutely BORING IT WAS being in a bed for 6 days not being able to move at all. After a while the conversation shifted to talking about how good Father is.

"Isn't he the best," Zell said.

"Oh yeah, he's always there for us." Bree stated. Well, this never-ending praise probably would have gone forever until I noticed that Talon had not said anything. Granted, he wasn't on the best of terms with Father, but he would have been able to come up with a few nice things to say about him. Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked quizzically

"Talon, why are you being so quiet? Aren't you grateful that he helped you when you got hurt? I know I am. If Father didn't help me, I probably would have died during another flight test crash." I would have said more, but Talon had jumped up screaming

"**SHUT UP ABOUT THAT DAMNED MAN, I HATE HIM NOW, AND I WILL HATE HIM FOREVER**!"

I was afraid for the safety of my pack, because his hair spikes were completely that shade of blood red that I had come to realize was intense anger and hatred. Talon _NEVER_ got angry, ever. The most had always been annoyed. But now he looked ready to explode at the next person to mention Father.

"Take it easy," Demi said, trying to calm the extremely tense situation. But Talon just turned to face Demi, and with a voice that sent chills down my spine.

"_**Back off Demi!**_" he growled, frightening Demi back into his seat. I tried to hug him to calm him down (which normally makes him happy as a pig in mud) but he brushed it off angrily and said

"Go away Terra, I don't need your sympathy".

Those words…hit me like…like…a stake through my heart. I tried to keep it together, but when your best friend for life who you probably love with all your heart snarls "I don't need your sympathy" at you, it just hurts. I couldn't hold back my tears. I saw a look of shock start to pass over his angered face, like he just realized what he had done.

The next thing I knew Talon had run out our door, down a hall, and out a window, spreading his midnight-black wings and flying off into the evening air. I had followed him of course, but now tears were falling down my cheeks—I didn't mean to shock him, I didn't want to see him like this…I wiped my tears away and went back to the room to find everyone both confused and startled at his sudden outburst.

"That was scary," Lexis said, a twinge of fear in her small voice.

"You said it," said Bree, in a more astonished tone.

"Alright everyone, let's split up and search for him, and if you find him, bring him back here." I said, rubbing my eyes while trying to be a good leader.

"And if he doesn't want to be brought back?' said Demi in an almost sarcastic voice.

"Then knock him out, tie him up, and drag him back here, got it." I said, small amounts of irritation showing in my voice. "GOT IT!" was the universal reply. We all split up except for Bree and I, who stayed behind for some reason. After everyone was gone, she asked me seriously,

"Are you going to be okay?" Fresh tears formed and started streaming down my face as I began to cry again. Bree put her hands on my shoulders and looked me right in the eyes and said "Look here Terra, don't let Talon know, but he loves you." I was shocked into a laugh—she was kidding, right?

"Did you not just hear what he said?" I asked in astonishment.

"Think about it Terra, it makes sense," Bree said. I thought and then found she was right; he would watch me sleep (which still creeps me out to this day), get embarrassed when I was wearing my nightgown or something of that caliber, and always did whatever I told him to with a smile. Something hit me then.

"Then why did he talk to me like that?" I asked.

"He was obviously stressed from something else and something you said sparked him off." Bree said with a shrug, "Well, I think we need to start looking for him now."

"Thanks Bree. Good luck trying to find him." I said back, rubbing my tears away.

Bree took off into the night from a nearby window, but I headed towards the stairs, because I already knew where he was; the roof of the School, because he always went there when he wanted to think and be alone for a while. I was about to spread my wings to fly up there, but I remembered Father saying to not use my wings for a while to get them used to the new nerve connections.

A lot of stairs later made me appreciate being able to fly. "How do the scientists stand being so slow all the time?" I asked no one in particular. The one thing I couldn't shake away was the newly discovered knowledge that Talon loved me. As I reached the door to the roof, the thought hit me more deeply. Talon** loved **me. That thought made me the happiest I'd felt all week.

**AN:**** Next chapter…Terra and Talon share a private moment**


	6. Talon Goes Emo

**Author's note: This chapter contains angst, sadness, depression, and other negative emotions of the sort. If you cry easily, I would suggest you toughen up before reading on. Please read and review**

Talon

(set right before his outburst)

I was in a mental battle to keep myself calm, and I was losing quickly. Father told me that what I saw was merely a nightmare, or a hallucination caused by the head bump. But I know what I saw, I saw Father just watch as foreign scientists cut off Terra's beautiful wings while he smiled the entire time. As Terra and I reached our room, we were bombarded with "we missed you guys" and "So glad your back". After the main commotion quieted down, I went to my bed and just started thinking. What if Father was right, what if I did just imagine it, or it was just because of the bump? Then I remembered something; during my "experience" I found that I could become invisible.

I put my hand in front of my face. It was like, now you see it; *POOF!* Now you don't (without the POOF). I could become invisible, which meant that I didn't imagine it. Then I realized something really important; **I DIDN'T IMAGINE IT**—meaning that Father had near tortured Terra and been okay with it! What was worse was that he lied to both of us about what really happened that night.

It was at that moment where I decided I no longer considered Father as anything close to human. Ironically, the flock was talking about how great Father was, and how good he was to them. With each passing statement of praise, I felt my hatred towards that man build up. I wouldn't tell any of the flock what happened, because if I did, it would crush them—especially Terra, who had a "strong bond" with Father at the moment.

My self-control was at its absolute limit, ready to blow at any moment. Just then, Terra asked

"Talon, why are you so quiet, aren't you grateful that he helped you when you got hurt, I know I am, if Fath-". She probably had more to say, but I couldn't hold it back anymore. I leapt out of my bed, took a deep breath, and yelled as loud as I could

"**SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT THAT DAMNED MAN; I HATE HIM NOW, AND I WILL HATE HIM UNTIL THE DAY I DIE!**" The room got so silent, you could hear a feather drop. Demi, sounding scared, said

"Take it easy, man."

"BACK OFF DEMI!" I said, ice and anger dripping from every word. Demi backed away quickly, startled at what I had snarled at him. During this, Terra tried to give me a hug, but in my anger I shrugged it off,

"Go away Terra, I don't need your sympathy." I growled.

Everyone gasped, because everyone but Terra herself knew that I loved her. I wanted to keep it from her as long as I could because I didn't really know how she felt about me. Only then, spotting a single tear streaming down her flawless face, did I realize the full extent of what I had said and done, I had hurt the girl that I supposedly loved, and I had been angry at my friends, the closest thing I had to a family, who had done nothing wrong to deserve my wrath. I could feel tears forming in my eyes. But instead of staying there and apologizing, I ran out the door, down the hall, and out the window. The cool, evening air made my tears sting my face.

I flew up to the roof of the School; a secret place where I had always gone to when I needed to think or when I wanted to be alone. And because no one knew where it was that I went to, I could be alone as long as I wanted to.

I sat down on the edge of the roof, five stories off the ground, and let my mind wander. While wandering, I came to thinking,

"_What if Father had a good reason to amputate Terra's wings, and he was smiling because it was a success, and I just imagined the scary tone in his voice._" I thought, desperately trying to convince myself.

It was quite possible, thinking about it, I realized. It was dark in the room, so I could have mistaken what I thought was Terra's wing for something else. I mean; she still had her wings now, right? The more I thought about it, the more sense it made, and the more the knowledge hurt that I had been cold and angry with the flock for false reasons.

Worse, I had hurt Terra's feelings, possibly ruining any chance for anything between her and me. I had hurt her, so it's understandable she'd hate me. I got more depressed the more I thought how she must feel.. Little did I know, I was about to find out, because she was 3 steps from the door to the roof, reaching for the knob on the door.

Terra

As I opened the door, I found out that the sun had already set. Wow, was my mental clock off or what? I still thought it was the afternoon! I guess resting time screwed you up like that. As I searched the roof in almost pitch-black darkness, I was surprised to not see him on the roof. The space itself wasn't very big, and there was nothing he could hide behind. With that being noted, where could he have gone?

After a few minutes, I was ready to give up, so I turned to open the door…but I swore I heard someone crying as my hand touched the knob. I turned in the direction of the sobs and started moving cautiously towards the way of the crying. As I got closer, I knew I saw something move, so I quickened my pace. Still being cautious, of course—who knew what or who was up here if it wasn't Talon?

After twenty minutes of near blind searching, I finally found Talon huddled near the edge of the roof that faced the sun when it sets. (His favorite spot. That I checked like…seven times. And didn't see him. Weird, huh?) I put my hand on his shoulder and he jumped up suddenly, startled at the sudden contact. Whoops.

I couldn't see it, but his face was turned away from mine, and I knew he had been crying severely for a long time. I don't know how…maybe it was the smell of tears I caught—that bitter, salty scent. He was acting like he had committed murder or something, being all depressed and angry. I pulled him into a big hug to show him that it was all right. He started crying again. Poor guy. After a while, his crying had reduced to sniffles. Because it was getting dark, I couldn't see his face at all unless he looked at me.

"Look at me Talon, and let's just talk, okay?" I suggested.

"Alright…" was the response I got back, which was the first thing I had heard him say for hours. After nothing happened, I said with a hint of amusement, "Come on Talon, look at me."

"I am looking at you!" Talon quickly responded, who I knew was too sad to tease me.

"Then why can't I see your face?" I asked, sort of demandingly.

"Oops, sorry, just a sec," he apologized. Then his head appeared out of nowhere right in front of mine. Total 'What the he—' moment, yes?

"Okay, how in the he-…ck did you do that" I asked, because when was Talon able to make his head disappear?

"Oh, I forgot to tell everyone, but my body can turn completely invisible, including my wings." He said with less sadness and more pride. A definite plus.

"Wow, when did you learn this?" I asked, obviously curious.

"Well, I found out when-" he started, but just then, he shuddered and kind of shut down, hair and eyes turning an ocean blue. It seemed like discussing that might have been bad for his emotional state, so I decided to drop the subject. Stupid me.

"So, you can turn invisible. Pretty sweet. Is there anything else you can do, or is that it?" He sat there, staring up at the stars, thinking.

"I don't think so," he answered, starting another awkward silence.

"So Talon…" I said, wincing a little bit to brace for another breakdown.

"Yeah?" he asked, the new slight happiness in his voice made it even harder for me to bring up that touchy subject.

"Just what exactly was going on when you went berserk back in the room?" I asked slowly, afraid that he would get depressed again.

And wouldn't you know it, he did; he went right back to being emo-Talon, with blue hair and eyes to match. Don't you just hate it when you're right?

"Well," he started, which surprised me; since I wasn't expecting even a peep, "I thought that something had happened to you, something really bad, and I thought that Father was the cause of it, which made me hate him. And when everyone was praising him, my anger just kept growing bigger and bigger. When you started giving him praise, I could only think about what I thought he had done to you, and that you were thanking someone who had done evil things to you; so my hatred finally blew, and then I exploded, saying things I didn't mean and regret saying." When he finished, it all made sense to me. It was all a misunderstanding. It had always been one.

"_What a relief,"_ I whispered to myself, "_I was worried it was something that I said."_ Talon suddenly looked shocked (and a little embarrassed, judging by his hair).

"What are you saying, Terra?" he said, looking dismayed, "Nothing you could say or do could make me mad at you like that."

I mentally slapped myself for forgetting his sensitive hearing. But after that, I noticed the way he had rejected what I had said, in a way too caring to just be something said between close friends. I kept myself calm, but it was very hard to hold back the joy I felt, knowing that Talon liked me back, but I wasn't going to let him know I liked him just yet, just to tease him a little. Talon's next words shook me out of my thoughts, however.

"Terra, I'm truly sorry for what I said to you earlier, I didn't mean it at all, I was just…just so **ANGRY** at something that wasn't even true," he said, not once looking me in the eye, "if you hate me now, I understand, I just want you… to be able….to forgive me."

I had to listen hard to understand the last part, because as he was talking, he burst into fresh tears, crying like the fragile, sensitive little boy he still had inside of him—basically, with no shame. I grabbed him and hugged him tight, saying things like, "It's alright, it's alright…don't worry about it, I forgive you…" while I let him cry it out.

After what seemed like forever (in actuality, it was 2 and a half hours) Talon had calmed down a lot, and was looking very tired, on the verge of falling asleep. Just as he dozed off, I picked him up, brought him to the room, where my pack was sleeping soundly.

I laid Talon in his bed and pulled his covers over him. As I looked at his sleeping face, a thought came to my mind. As I thought about it, I started blushing furiously. I decided to do it because everyone else was asleep and Talon wouldn't know that I did it. Still a little nervous, I looked around the room, making sure my flock was asleep. When I was sure no one was awake, I kissed Talon's lips quickly and quietly.

This being my first kiss, I didn't know what it was supposed to feel like, but I felt like everything in the world was right were it should be. Then my face turned red as a tomato in seconds as I realized what I must have looked like, leaning over Talon's sleeping body, watching him sleep like he did with me, and I had just kissed him. Talk about awkward.

Just as I turned to go to bed, I heard Talon mumble my name. I was instantly in complete freak out mode, because if he was awake, he knew that I just kissed him. Thankfully though, he was just talking in his sleep. He looked somewhat sad as he continued to mumble things like, "Please forgive me, Terra. I'm so sorry."

I smiled as all doubt that Talon might like me vanished from my mind. I leaned in close, whispered into his sensitive ear "I forgive you Talon," and started stroking his cute little whiskers.

I was startled when I heard Talon PURRING; oh, I was going to use this, but later. At that moment, I was starting to feel very sleepy, and Talon's purring was having a hypnotic effect on me. I barely made it to my bed before I fell into a deep sleep, thinking that everything was going to be better. Little did I know, two things I'd find out later would affect me a whole lot. One, Lexis had woken up when I had opened the door and seen my "romantic kiss" with Talon. Two, Father was about to send us on our biggest and last mission.

**Next Chapter: The two Flocks collide and the truth is revealed. You don't want to miss it!**


	7. The Mission

**This is a note to all of you who have given this story the attention I need. I especially want to thank two readers in detail**

**Lizziestar: I love your story and all of you who love this story, you'll love hers. The Title is "**_**With Wings Wide Open"**_

**The other author is BlueFoxofWater1569, she runs the community Neo-Flock currently resides. She's responsible for putting my story in the spotlight. **

**This is the chapter where the Neo-Flock is given its mission, and will the Old Flock reveal the School's web of deceit? What are you still reading this for? FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!**

The Mission: Capture Old Flock

**Terra**

The next morning I woke up feeling like a million bucks (plus taxes). I had the traditional race to the showers with the guys (girls won, of course. With five on two, who wouldn't?). While brushing our teeth, Lexis unleashed my worst nightmare to all of the girls in the flock.

"Terra, did you **kiss **Talon last night?" she asked, sounding bewildered.

I frantically tried to regain my calm and collected composure after the shock that Lexis had somehow found out what I did, and was praying that Talon was still asleep, so he wouldn't have heard what Lexis had said through the walls. The look on the girls' faces said that the initial shock on my face gave away the truth immediately. I sighed, knowing that I would not leave the bathroom without explaining every last detail. Fortunately, I was saved by Demi's knocking on the bathroom door.

"Hey everyone, Talon wants to talk to everyone ASAP." He said.

"Alright," I said, hiding the urge to leap out of the bathroom and thank him for saving me an explanation, "we'll be out in a minute."

I was beaming with pride for Talon; he was probably gathering everyone together to apologize. We finished our daily hygiene routine, got dressed, and made our way to our room. As we entered, we saw Demi and Talon talking with each other. We came in and took a seat in our respective beds.

"Ahem," he started, "well everyone, I would like to apologize for what happened last night; I was rude, and acted like a complete idiot."

I stopped him there as he started to pull out a couple of sheets of paper, which were covered with words (probably a prepared speech). I looked around at the flock, who were all nodding their heads in agreement and thinking "_Stop him before we have to listen to every word on those papers!_"

"Yeah, you were an idiot, but you're **our **idiot." I said with a warm smile. We all hugged and made up. It was all happy for what, one minute, before Father's voice crackled across the intercom system

"_All Neo-Flock members, please report to my office as soon as possible, Thank you."_

I was worried that Talon would get angry or depressed again, but he retained his silvery appearance, which was so shiny that I had to cover my eyes. Dang, that boy was happy! We all quickly made our way to Father's office, running into some of the new generation of successful experiments; Hunters, who were part tiger, were pretty much the equivalent of ninjas to the Erasers. And another thing, they all looked like teenage girls that would make a normal boy drool. Which seemed pretty weird to me, but Demi seemed to enjoy it, because I had to go back and drag him by his ear to where everyone else was waiting.

When we arrived in Father's office, he looked really stressed out, like an elementary school teacher who doesn't have enough time for making his lesson plans. As he caught sight of us, he seemed to relax a little.

"We have your biggest mission ready for you." He said.

I nearly squealed with delight, I had always wanted to go on big missions like the Erasers. We had always been stuck with the lousy runaway experiment missions. "The mission itself is simple: search and retrieve," he continued, "it's the targets that are difficult. I believe you know of Maximum Ride and her so-called 'Flock'"

I felt a knot in my stomach start to form; I had heard of Maximum Ride through the stories the caretakers used to tell us—they were bad mutants, who betrayed everything that the caretakers had done for them. In my opinion, they deserved a beating.

"You have all been trained in combat for years now, so we expect the Old-Flock won't stand a chance" Father said with a voice that sounded excited.

One of the last great benefits of being top-dogs was that we were taught how to fight by some of the best martial arts masters that the School could buy. Talon and I were allowed to make our own mixed martial arts. I don't know why, but nobody else was.

I had created a style with blows that took expert balance to pull off; I named it Ultimo kung fu, because no one could beat it. Talon created a very fluid, evasive, defensive style with all offense based in counterattack and nerve strikes; he called it Butterfly style jujitsu, because he could move very slowly, but still not be hit (except by me, because he couldn't predict my strange attack angles).

For everyone else, it seemed they all got taught basic martial arts. It seemed like me and Talon were special or something. I was originally against all of us being taught how to fight, because Talon had always seemed to attract fights, and he absolutely _hated _to lose. I couldn't have even begun to explain how many times I've seen Talon standing over a paralyzed Eraser, and he simply responded 'he started it'. Father's voice focused my attention when I heard him say the word "mission" again.

"Now that you've all been properly trained in combat, its time you heard about your mission" Father said.

He went on to saying something like "the old flock needs to be stopped," but my mind was drifting to focus on other things, like how Lexis knew I kissed Talon last night. What snapped me out of my thoughts was the center of my early-morning horror show, Talon himself.

"Come on Terra," he said with a slight frown, "we need to start packing if we are going to leave by this afternoon."

"WHAT, THIS AFTERNOON?" I yelled in shock, I wasn't expecting we'd have to leave _that_ soon!

"Yeah, weren't you paying attention to the briefing?" he said with an evil grin that told me he knew I had drifted off.

Just to save you from reading my rambling on how unfair leaving so quickly and Talon's merciless teasing were, I'll skip to that afternoon, when we were getting ready to take off. We were on the roof, getting ready to take off. Father went through a final briefing of the mission to us and made sure to understand the following rules: One, no one is to see you, Two, bring the old flock back ALIVE, three, come back safely. We all nodded in universal agreement.

"All right guys and girls, let's go," I yelled over the wind.

We all ran to the edge of the roof and leaped into the warm air, my wings working properly this time, both of them beating powerfully in almost a dance. We all looked back at the School, our home and paradise. Little did we know, when we returned, we would want to kill everyone inside.

**Talon**

As we flew towards our target destination, I had a lot of time to think about things. And believe me, there are a lot of things a 15-year old hybrid boy has to think about. For example, I had recently noticed that none of the Neo-Flock has a last name, which all the scientists say they got from their parents. Also I thought about how much less of a person I was than anyone else, being almost one-ninth animal. I wondered, if I didn't have the Neo-Flock, who would ever accept me?

But mainly, I thought about Terra; how beautiful she looked, how she made my days better just by being there, how she occupied every single thought I had. I knew it for certain; I had feelings for Terra.

"What's up Taly?" She said, a suspicious look on her face, probably as to why my hair was so shiny, "You're almost never this happy."

I was about to make up something when I saw some Erasers fighting down below. At first I thought they were just sparring, until I saw the people they were fighting against had _wings._

"Terra, below us." I said seriously, signaling down.

She followed my hand and saw the fight as well. She made her own signal, and within seconds, the whole Neo-Flock was aware and ready for action. With one last gesture, we all started our descent; to face an epic showdown, old versus new, which one would win was completely up for grabs.

**Terra**

We landed about a mile away and started creeping towards the Old Flock's location. In the mission report, we had been told that a few members of the old Flock possessed unparalleled detection skills, so that's why we landed so far away. When we got close enough, I told everyone to split up and surround the Old Flock.

The traitors were still fighting with the Erasers that were sent to be our decoy. I was given the job of picking the right time to call off the Erasers and attack on our own. I was forced to make a choice fast, because the Old Flock was beating the crap out of the Erasers like they were punching bags. I overheard the tall one dressed in black make a joke about the School never giving them a challenge. I gave the order to call the Erasers off on my tiny headset, before they embarrassed themselves anymore.

I noticed Max spinning her head around looking for something, probably the reason why the Erasers turned tail and ran. I didn't want to fight them just yet, I wanted to wait until they dropped their guard, then we would attack.

Max looked the same as she did in the profile photos, tall, proud, confident, fierce, and that streaked hair, which I loved (I know they are our enemies, but I'm a girl; when I see cute hair, I'll compliment it). Nobody else from the Old Flock had pictures, so I was curious to see if I could match names with faces.

I was pretty sure the tall boy with dark hair was the one they called Fang, because he just gave off that edged look. Since the small boy let loose a massive fart in the middle of the searching, I came to the conclusion that he was the Gasman. The blind one who was concentrating really hard to try and hear us was obviously Iggy, because Iggy was the only guy name left and he was the only guy. I don't know why they call her Nudge, but the African-American girl was babbling on and on, about what could have scared off Erasers, to the point where I could see Talon trying to hold himself back from leaping out and strangling her. That left Angel, the youngest, but probably the most powerful member of the Old Flock.

We had all been told that Angel looked innocent, but would use mind-control to make you kill yourself in a second. I shuddered when I thought of that six-year old telling me to kill myself. I shuddered more than I meant to and started to lose my balance. All I could do was put my foot down to break my fall. Unfortunately, I stepped on a stick that sent a small crack through the woods.

"_Crap_," I thought to myself, "_I know they heard that, so what should I do now?_"

After I saw Iggy's ears start to close in on my breathing, I decided to heck with it and just wing it (little Neo-Flock humor for you there). Despite Talon screaming in his look to stay hidden, I walked into the clearing and faced the enemy.

"_I pray to God that I can pull this off_," I thought.

**Max**

"_Okay, this is weird…_" Max thought as the last Eraser ran away.

Max and her flock had been fighting fiercely against Erasers when they just stopped, turned tail, and ran. Max would have liked to think that she had scared them off, but knowing the School and how she seemed to be the world's most powerful trouble-magnet, there was little chance of that. Max told everyone to be on their guard. Something was telling her (and it wasn't her Voice) that something worse than Erasers was coming for her and her family.

After ten minutes of being tensed and ready for something to spring out and attack them, Max was ready to admit that it was just a bad feeling she had and nothing more, when Iggy suddenly stiffened up, letting the flock know that someone or something was coming.

After a few more minutes of craned listening, Max heard a rustling in the bushes and whipped around to see a girl; not much older than she was, maybe even younger, walking towards her out of some bushes. Instinctual paranoia ratcheted Max's suspicions up a few levels when she noticed that the girl was completely clean and well fed, even though they were in the middle of nowhere.

"Hi," she said in an overly-cheerful voice that was obviously fake, "are you Maximum Ride and her flock?"

"Who's asking?" Max answered flatly.

"Well then, I'll take that as a 'yes'." she sighed happily, "That saves us from looking for you, thanks."

Sudden panic hit Max as she realized that THEY must have been the reason the Erasers had fled. The fact that she looked completely normal, and her cheerful voice, both fooled Max into dropping her full guard.

"So how many more of you are there?" Max asked, slowly preparing herself for a flight-or-fight.

"Just me," the girl said a little too quickly.

"I wasn't asking you," Max snapped.

"Five or so more, including the one right in front of us" Iggy, the flock's resident sonar service explained.

Angel's sweet voice chimed in, "They're seven total, and they're all mutants from the School, they have wings like us, but they think the school is paradise for some reason."

The girl standing in front of Max started talking in an irritated tone that reminded Max of…well…_herself_, "Are you going to come with us peacefully, or are we going to have to take you back?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to turn down your gracious offer," Max answered defiantly, "because obviously, because you think the School is _paradise_, you must not be right in the head."

The girl's eyes narrowed into a death glare before she suddenly screamed "GET THEM!" And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the point where the old flock got properly acquainted with the Neo-Flock.

**AN:**** Next Chapter, The Old Flock reveals all! How will the Neo-Flock react? Find out.**


	8. Old and New

**AN:**** In this chapter, the Flocks really meet each other, and the truth is revealed**

**Terra**

If someone were to write a poem about our fighting skills, it would be only two words long: "YOU SUCK!" There wasn't even a fight, it was more of us leaping out, starting to fight, and then getting our butts kicked in less than two seconds flat. Now, we were all tied up with rope, in a strange house, with the old flock staring at us with looks in their eyes that seemed to be studying us; like we were crazy.

"Well, it seems like you're all awake now," Max said in a tired voice, "I have a couple of questions for you Terra." I was shocked. "how do you know my name?" I almost growled.

"Well," she said "Angel here can read minds, so it wasn't all that hard."

Shaking her head as if to gather herself; she asked me "What do you think of the School and why?" I told her that it was the best place in the world and that we were treated like royalty. "oooooh, just as I thought," she said like she regretted asking me anything at all. "This might be hard for you to believe, Terra right? But everything that you know, everything you've been told by the School, is probably a lie." Now, I'm not one to giggle, but what she said took the cake. "It's the truth Terra," Max said with complete sincerity.

"If it is, what proof do you have?" I asked.

"Well, have any of the scientists done any painful or gruesome experiments on you behind your backs?" she asked the entire pack.

I looked around and saw everyone shake their heads "no", that is, until I reached Talon. His face looked as pale as death, with his brown hair and green eyes saying he was maybe losing it. I heard him whisper a barely audible "yes" into the crowd.

"Alright, who was it done to?" Max said in a rude, direct tone that was really getting on my nerves. Talon was then untied, and he weakly pulled up his index finger to point directly at me.

"They cut off your wings, and put those new ones on; I saw it with my own eyes." Talon said shakily, as if trying to keep himself from fainting or tossing his cookies. But it was Angel, the little blonde girl with the dazzling white wings, from across the room, who threw up.

"He's telling the truth," she said weakly, obviously whatever she looked at in Talon's mind wasn't exactly rated PG for younger audiences.

The rest of us were untied when we swore we wouldn't try anything. I was honestly too shocked by Talon's revelation about my wing surgery to try anything funny. We were then properly introduced to the old flock. Max explained that the person who could completely prove that the School was evil was coming to that house later that day.

The house where we were being held was quite large, with two stories and three bedrooms. It also looked old; like, really old. There was tacky wallpaper peeling off of every wall, and the entire place had a coating of dust thick enough to suffocate us if someone stirred it up. I wondered why Max would choose to rest in such an old dump that looked like it belonged in the time of the Civil War?

"This house has been abandoned for years," Max said, obviously seeing the look of confusion on my face, "the likely reason being that it was too far to the closest town. That, of course, makes it perfect for us; no people, I used to think no School, and lastly, this place has a lot of room!"

I was starting to admire Max, despite what the School told me about Max being an expert at acting and lying; I would have never thought to have stayed here because of it's age and run-down appearance, but Max was able to look past that to see how good of a house it really was.

I came to realize that if Max had wanted to hurt us or silence us, they would have done it a long time ago, while we were unconscious. I opened myself up a little bit; Max and I started talking, and I started thinking more and more that Max wasn't really a bad person. It seemed to me like they were just trying to survive in a world they would never fit into. The rest of my pack followed my lead and started being more social with the Old Flock, but instead of sticking to the plan of keeping the talks simple, we found that our Flocks got along really well with each other, so pretty quickly we were all exchanging personal conversations.

As Max and I were chatting about our wings, It struck me that all of the Old Flock were really thin. Not just because of being bird-kids, but thin from starvation. I shuddered when I thought of how long they had gone hungry to end up that thin. They also looked completely filthy from dirt and dried-up blood on their clothes. I felt guilty noticing my cleanliness and well-fed appearance.

I was a little hesitant at first, the School's almost ritual hatred of the Flock that had been carved into my head was making me slightly afraid to ask them anything, but I choked up the courage to ask Max something.

"Max," I said, my voice almost cracking, "What's your story? How did you all end up like this?"

Max looked at me with sad eyes that seemed to know way too much about the world to belong to a girl my age.

"Well it's about time you asked us!" she sighed, "I mean, I've been waiting here patiently this whole time!"

"You've actually been waiting for me to ask you about your story?" I said in disbelief.

"No," Max said bluntly, "I'm kidding, but if you want to hear it, I'll warn you, you may not believe everything you hear, and it's not exactly for the faint of heart."

Max proceeded to tell us all about their mountain home, how Angel was kidnapped, about Dr. Martinez and Ella, the dramatic first escape. The Institute for Higher Living in New York was terrifying to hear about, as well as the Headquarters in Germany.

The more time that passed in that little house and the more of Max's story I heard, the more I was divided. On one hand, The School had lied about the old flock being bad, but on the other, the School had never treated us cruelly as far as I knew (excluding Talon, but I couldn't confirm what he said about my new wings was true), so I couldn't believe the School had screwed up our entire lives.

After Max finished her story, both Flocks seemed to accept each other even more. I looked around the room and saw that everyone was acting like our Flocks had been friends forever. Talon was chatting with Iggy, Gazzy, Fang, and Demi, showing off how he and Fang could turn invisible and scare people, namely, their leaders me and Max. I spotted Juli and Bree talking with Angel and Nudge at the other end of the room. It seemed they were talking about something very funny that involved me, because they kept giggling whenever they looked at me.

I was about to ask them what they were talking about, but Max pulled me aside to ask me about how I kept my boys from being obnoxious jerks. We proceeded to swap male-disciplinary tactics. Man, Talon and Demi would have quite a surprise the next time they acted up. After a few hours, a knock at the door caused everyone to jump.

"Max, it's me, please open the door and let me in." a man's voice said hurriedly. Max ran to the door and threw it open, revealing an older man, with wire-rimmed glasses who eerily resembled Father standing in the doorway. He walked in, set some folders on the coffee table, turned to us, and nodded to Max, then me while he introduced himself.

"My name is Jeb Batcheldor, and until recently, I was a white coat." He said to us, making a lot of us from the Neo-flock tense at his voice until he smiled; I relaxed a bit, while my other group members did the same. "Whatever the School told you, it has been a lie. I know the truth about them. They have wrecked your lives beyond belief."

For the next few hours, Jeb explained everything to us. He got us to believe he knew about the School when he stated all of the School's security codes and regulations; Security codes that only scientists and us higher-ranked experiments knew, and regulations that only School-wise people could possibly know. After he finished telling us the truth, we just sat there, stunned, thinking about what to do next. Since all of us still weren't completely convinced about the School being evil, we came to a unanimous decision.

"We've decided that we're going back to the School, and if we don't find proof of them being evil, we'll just stay." I said, "If we do find proof though, we'll leave and come straight back to this house."

"We want to go with you," Max said after a moment of huddling with her flock, "all of us, because if you need help, we're the only ones who can give it."

I had been expecting this, and because I knew how much Max hated to be given orders, my voice was a little shaky.

"No Max," I said, trying to keep myself sounding calm, "this is my Flock's problem, and we'll deal with it ourselves." I braced myself for sparks to start flying, but Max surprised me.

"I understand Terra," she said, "I'll let you deal with this yourselves, because I would do the same thing in your position."

This shocked me, Max was supposed to hate being told 'no', under _any_ circumstance.

"You might want to get going though," Max said, "because if you came on a mission to capture us, they're going to get suspicious if you take to long to get back."

We said our farewells to the old flock, which we no longer considered enemies; then took off towards the School. Right before we left, Max warned us that if we decided to leave the School, they wouldn't make it easy for us. I told her that I knew the risk, but I needed to know for sure before leaving the School behind.

On the way back, everyone was occupied in his or her own thoughts. Only one good thing had come from learning the horrible truth; I had completely forgotten about the awkward "kissing Talon" drama.

Max

I watched silently as the Neo-Flock flew back willingly towards a place I'd like to bomb to kingdom come. I knew worrying wasn't really her thing with non-flock members (except her Mom and Ella), but talking with the Neo-Flock for hours and learning about them made them feel almost like part of her flock. I knew they would need back-up, but I had to wait until everyone was asleep to make a getaway.

"You aren't _really_ going to let them tackle the School alone, are you?" Fang's voice said from behind me.

Fang's voice right next to my ear made me jump three feet in the air. He had one of his rare grins on, making my heart flutter slightly.

"Well?" he said expectingly.

"Well what?" I asked, his smile constantly distracting me.

"Are we following them or what?" he said.

I wasn't that surprised that Fang knew what I was thinking, because we knew each other so well that we often times knew exactly what the other was thinking, without even having telepathy like Angel.

"Shall we get going then?" I said.

"Ladies first," Fang said with a fake bow.

"IGGY!" I yelled.

"WHAT?" he yelled back from the roof.

"FANG AND I ARE FOLLOWING TERRA! WATCH THE OTHERS FOR US!" I yelled.

"SURE, THEY'LL NEVER LEAVE MY SIGHT!" he replied sarcastically, making me grin.

Fang and I made running take-offs from the ground, leapt into the air, and started flying in the general direction the Neo-Flock went.

We flew and flew, and I was secretly praying to someone that Terra wouldn't need our help, because after two hours of flying, both me and Fang were completely lost. After another hour of trying to pick up the Neo-Flock's trail, we gave up and headed back to the house to wait for the Neo-Flock to get back.

**AN:**** The Neo-Flock, armed with the truth, heads back…what kind of welcome can they expect?**


	9. The Shocking Truth is Revealed!

**This chapter is where the School decides to stop the 'nice saviors' act. You don't want to miss this! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW, REVIEWS ARE MY REASON FOR LIVING! Tell all your friends who like Maximum Ride to read this. I don't need signed reviews, I just need reviews! **

The Shocking Truth is revealed

Terra

On our descent approaching the School, we noticed that Father, the scientists, and a few Erasers were standing in the field looking at us. We decided to land and talk to them.

"Hello ever-" I started

"Where have you been?" Father said in a strained voice.

"We were captured by the old Flock. We managed to escape to come back here." I said defensively.

"You have failed in your mission, so you must be punished." Father said.

That's when, with a small gasp as, an Eraser wrenched my arm behind my back and pushed me forwards to the dismay of my other flock members, I knew that we weren't going to be royalty anymore.

Talon

As we were escorted down the hallways, I saw that the scientists didn't seem to see us the same way they used to. As we walked past, they just stared at us with blank expressions; Like we were animals in a zoo.

We entered Father's office and were told to sit down and shut up. In that small room, there was me, the rest of the Neo-Flock, Father, and a few scientists. Father started rambling on about how they had treated us so well, how they had given us everything we wanted. During the ramble, I focused my sensitive ears onto the scientist's whispered conversation.

One of the scientists, James, was my only best friend outside of the neo-flock. I would gladly trust my life to him; which is why what he said hurt me so much and shut my mind down.

"I wish he'd hurry up so we can dissect them." James said.

"Should we use any anesthesia?" A fat whitecoat walking besides him whispered.

"No," James said, "they're just freaks anyway. I'm glad we can drop the whole 'be friendly' routine, I was about to gag myself. I mean, whose bright idea was it to be nice to the mutant garbage anyway?"

"I know what you mean," the third scientist said.

Then they all burst into quiet laughter. I can't remember anything after that, because according to Terra, I basically shut down .

Terra

I was looking at Talon when he suddenly turned his natural colors and his eyes kind of glazed over. I tried to get him to respond, but he wasn't moving an inch. Now I was kind of getting tired of Father's rant on how we had failed so miserably; So I tried to say something, but was cut off by Father slapping me across the face really hard—so hard, in fact, that my head was now sideways from the slap. I turned my head and sat there staring at him, my hand gingerly rubbing my stinging cheek.

"Failures like you seven have no right to talk to me." Father said in a voice dripping with hate; "We here at the School didn't save your pathetic lives—Oh no. Your parents all sold you to us at next to nothing. They let us do this to you." His voice was raised, and with an evil smirk on his face he looked towards me. "But now, you are all just failed experiments. Your worth less than garbage. And you, Terra…you weren't even supposed to exist as far as we were concerned. You are a failure within a failure compared to the others. An attempt at the perfection we had with Maximum Ride, but an ultimate failure all the same."

I was completely blown away at this. MAX WAS RIGHT! The School _was _evil! Pushing the shock away for later bewilderment, I began formulating an escape plan when I heard the sound of gritting teeth and a low growl. I turned around and saw Talon standing up while I tried to figure out if I was relieved or worried.

"Hey you, sit back down," the fat scientist yelled, grabbing Talon's shoulder, "didn't you hear me FREAK, I said SIT DO-"

The fist that slammed his face and sent him sprawling interrupted him. I looked at Talon and, for the first time in my 14-year life, was truly and completely scared for my life. Talon's hair had turned completely blood red, looking like they had just stabbed someone. But what terrified me the most were his eyes; they were bright yellow, and his pupils were slits while the whites of his eyes turned black as night. He looked like a demon that was ready and willing to kill.

"_**You bastards…" **_he growled, sounding like the warning big cats give off to scare other large animals. I have to say, it scared humans just as effectively!_** "…have lied to me my entire life, insulted the only family I have ever had, and you hurt Terra when she said nothing against you**_. _**I... AM GOING... TO KILL YOU!**_"

It turns out that Father had called all Erasers to his office to deal with us, but when they got there, I actually feel a split-second of pity for them. The first Eraser that tried to grab me was stopped instantly by Talon's hand on his wrist. Talon then proceeded to crush the wrist like a dry twig.

The Eraser howled in pain and tried to bite Talon, but the boy just evaded the deadly jaws like a butterfly avoiding a net. Talon ducked down and swerved in towards the big dog and poked him under his jaw. That Eraser dropped like a rock to the floor, dead as a doorknob.

Jumping into the action, I leaped out of my chair, grabbed the nearest scientist by the shoulders and _threw_ him into the others, watching with satisfaction as they fell to the floor like dominoes. Y'know, for such a "failure" of a group, we were kicking some serious butt, eh?

"Run!" I yelled to everyone else.

Juli and Bree grabbed Lexis and Zell, while Demi fended off three Erasers at once, protecting them. Watching Talon fight and kill Eraser after Eraser that came at him was terrifying. But after about ten Erasers, his rage had burned down enough to get his eyes to change from their demonic color to red (what I guessed was what the usual "anger" color was). We would never tell him this, but when Talon told Father he was going to kill him, everyone was truly scared of him. Being as sensitive as he is, telling him he had frightened everyone would only send him spiraling into "emo-boy" again.

"Hey Taly," I yelled over the chaos, "have you gotten over your temper tantrum yet? Or do I need to give you a time-out after this?"

"Just worry about getting out of here first!" he huffed, a slight blush on his cheeks, and a twinge of pink running through his hair.

We—the rest of the flock—managed to bite, claw, and fight our way out of the room, breaking through the door and pounding down the hallway. I couldn't help it then, too many things were going through my head; tears started to stream down my cheeks as I ran out the door, spread out my wings and attempted to take-off. But I was suddenly brought down, and my flock stared in shock (no rhyming pun here, please) as I hit the ground on my back…Hard…Again.

"Just great…." I groaned as I slowly sat up and stared blankly at the door, where….wait…what the heck!

My flock was stuck in metal grated-cage that had…popped out of the ground? Oh crap, I had forgotten that there were traps everywhere that were at one time, before the School became evil, used in obstacle course races for us. I stood, shaky on my wings, trying my hardest not to toss my cookies.

I realized that the gate bars were charged with electricity. Well…I didn't figure that out until Demi attempted to grab the bars and it shocked him and sent him flying into Talon. I tried getting up to help them, but some unseen force had me glued to the ground.

"Now that's not very polite Terra, disrespecting your elders. Tsk, tsk, tsk." Father's voice boomed from the speakers, and I heard the sadistic scorn in his voice, "I thought we raised you better than that." I was getting pissed off now; we played right into his trap and he was taunting us all too easily. "Oh! By the way, I never got the chance to ask you. How do you like your new wings Terra?"

"I'd rather have my old wings back you old creep." I yelled, hoping he heard me.

"Okay," he stated a little too quickly for comfort, "that can be arranged." He clapped his hands and two Erasers carrying a small platform came onto the field. After setting the platform in front of me, Father said "Here you go, Terra. If you want your old wings back so badly, here they are." While Father was laughing maniacally, the Erasers pulled off the cover of the platform…and what I had been trying to keep down came up immediately.

There, bloody and decayed, were my old marbled wings. I turned away to look at my flock in their electrified cage. Everyone except Talon looked as disgusted as I was. Talon was on the ground clutching his head with his eyes closed, muttering something like "No, not her pretty wings… don't take off her wings". Juli noticed my glance and moved to pull the boy into a hug to calm him down.

. "You know Terra," Father laughed maniacally, and I glared at the sound system in front of me, "if Talon hadn't seen the removal himself, he probably wouldn't have exploded at you."

Everything made sense, and at the same time I wanted to strangle something, like that cruel-hearted man speaking to us; Talon _had_ seen the removal, and so he had been confused about the School's morality earlier.

I felt complete and total pity for Talon, and ashamed of myself for not fully believing him; He had seen something that would probably scar him for the rest his already screwed-up life. Probably? No…judging by how he was acting it had already horribly scarred him for life.

"I'm disappointed in you Talon," Father sighed, "Rivaling on the ground like a baby who's lost his mother. We made you better than that. And you know it."

"SHUT UP!" I yelled back in anger. I was not about to let that sick lunatic take jabs at anyone in my pack, especially the currently helpless Talon.

"You're right, Terra." Father said, "They always say, 'actions speak louder than words.'"

And with that, pressed a button on a dashboard in front of him (that of which I couldn't see), and my pack exploded into screams of pain. I whirled around from trying to think of a way to blow up Father at this point and I saw that my pack was being electrocuted.

"Aaaaah," Father sighed in mock content, making my anger level rise ever higher, "electrocution is always the best method of garbage disposal."

My anger snapped as he appeared from a corner of the room, smirking. Somehow, translucent claws ripped from my fingers without warning, and they resembled a wolf's claws, but at the time I could have cared less.

I charged at Father, but an Eraser blocked me off and, grabbing my throat, threw me to the side. I hit the wall and collapsed on the ground, not moving for a minute due to physical shock. During that time, I heard Zell scream as she was grabbed and pulled out of the cage, flailing. The others were helpless. An Eraser had her by the wings, and—she had tears running down her face by this point—it started pulling the wings downwards with intent to tear them off slowly and painfully.

I jumped up with a snarl, completely overpowering the force that had previously glued me to the ground. There was _no way_ that I was going to let them hurt my little sister while I was alive to stop it.

Speed. Agility. Power. That's what I wanted…needed…at that moment. I took off sprinting, feet pounding as I raced towards that Eraser, who had jumped away from the cage towards the center of the field, where the other dozen or so met him. There was definite murder in my eyes as the Erasers smirked and tried to close around Zell, who was whimpering and crying and…anyone that touched her was going to die.

I felt power seep through my body, and I felt…change. Good change. The wind I suddenly felt was soothing, my wings outspread and racing towards them…my mind then went into something almost like autopilot as I slammed into the Erasers, the taste of blood filling my mouth.

Talon

I woke up feeling like Terra had just beaten the living crap out of me. My brain was numb, like I just got a brain freeze. Then, slowly, my mind started working again. I remembered that Terra had run towards the School's army of Erasers alone. I jolted upright and saw a humongous pale-pelted wolf standing in the middle of the field—paws, muzzle and beige-colored fur were soaked with blood. As I stared at it I saw it shrink and turn back into Terra! She collapsed, and her eyes were wide with fear and hysteria. I just then noticed that the army of Erasers that Terra had faced was lying all around her, in pieces.

I then noticed that our electric cage had a hole smashed into it by a dead Eraser, so I got up from the ground, carefully stepped out to avoid getting cut by the ragged metal, and walked towards Terra, who was looking at her blood-covered body, especially her hands, with shock and utter horror. Juli noticed my leaving and notified Bree by a look, and as I went towards Terra the other two got everyone out. The wolf transformation had destroyed all of Terra's clothes, so I grabbed a lab coat from a fallen scientist and draped it over her trembling form. I steeled my nerves so I wouldn't throw up at the sight of Terra completely soaked to the bone with the blood of Erasers she had torn apart.

"Terra," I asked quietly, "are you okay?"

"Talon, you don't get it…" she muttered flatly, and I noticed with discomfort that Terra's teeth were also blood-stained, "I'm an Eraser…I'm the enemy…I'm just a monster…They were right about me."

"It's okay Terra," I said with pure concern in my voice, pulling her head into my chest, "It doesn't matter, because it's all over now. Zell's okay and your fine…we just need to get you cleaned up is all. Promise me you won't object to taking a bath."

She smiled weakly at me, but I could tell there was nothing behind that smile. She started looking faint and I felt her start to fade to unconsciousness.

"…Alright." she breathed.

With that; she collapsed in my arms. I scooped Terra up and started carrying her bridal style. I carried her carefully, trying hard to keep my balance while weaving between mangled body parts.

While weaving through, an almost dead Eraser shot a strange gun at me, and a dart filled with a weird liquid pierced my arm, but I pulled it out quickly so I was pretty sure that there would be no effects, so I moved on and pushed it to the back of my mind, though a dull pain was starting to form around the hole the dart made.

I rounded up the rest of the flock, and I had to say we had looked better. Juli had a shivering Zell in her arms and was humming a pretty lullaby to calm her down. Lexis was clutching Bree like her life depended on it, and Demi just stood there silently.

I noticed that he was looking at me expectantly, and I realized that he was waiting for an order from me. Since Terra was unable to be the leader, it was my job to step up and take her place. But it was the first time I had been leader when it really mattered, when our lives might have been at stake.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to look leader-ly. I told everyone to take off and that we were heading back to where the Old Flock was waiting. Eventually all of us had taken off into the cool night air. We were about to start our trip to Max, when I stopped and turned to look at the School and saw Father, who had miraculously survived the carnage, staring at us with anger in his eyes. I felt a primal urge, and because of what that man had done, I did nothing to stop it.

"Demi, can you and Bree hold Terra for a little bit?" I asked through clenched teeth.

Looking at the ground and understanding what I was going to do, Demi said sure and carefully took Terra from me. As soon as Terra left my arms, I flipped backwards into a dive bomb. Being the best flyer had its benefits, like being able to pull off a really intimidating landing in front of Father, who was trying to run inside the School to safety.

"Hello Father," I said, everything I was feeling being almost painfully obvious, "Going somewhere?"

He tried to throw a desperate punch at me, but I just ducked it and stepped in closer as easily as if the punch hadn't even happened. I jabbed a few punches to nerve centers, and places that just plain hurt. He screamed in pain while I hoisted his now paralyzed body into the air by his neck.

"Is everything you said earlier true?" I asked angrily, "Have you been lying to us all these years?"

"Yes, it's all true Talon," Father wheezed, "and when I'm recovered enough, I will capture you again and kill you myself, and I will make sure that the garbage that you all are will be taken care o-"

My hand squeezed his throat stopped him from continuing.

"No you won't Father," I said with a sadistic smile, "because I'm going to kill you right here and end this."

I saw his eyes widen, his mouth opening, maybe to offer a plea for his life, but once again, my grip prevented any attempt to appeal to my mercy, not that I had any for the unforgivable piece of dirt. I started squeezing harder, hearing his neck pop.

After a few seconds of holding it there, I swear I saw a condescending look pass over his face, one that almost said "You can't kill me Talon, you don't have it in you."

…boy, did he think wrong. With a sickening "crunch", I snapped Father's neck. After the light left his eyes, I let his carcass drop to the ground, to rot among the Erasers. As I saw him laying there, a thought came to mind.

"A fitting end for you," I said, shaking my head in disgust, "your body being laid to rest with the very freaks you created to kill us."

I took off from the ground and met back up with the Neo-Flock. They were far enough away so that Lexis and Zell didn't see what I had done, and that was a relief. I didn't want to have them scared of me because I killed someone. I flew over to Demi and he carefully handed Terra back to me. Then we started one of our famous, "unspoken" conversations, where we say one thing, but we both know what is really said.

"What did you do down there?("_What did you do to Father_?")" Demi asked.

"Nothing much.("_Don't ask_.")" I replied sharply.

"Really?(_"Cut the crap and tell me now.")_" Demi asked.

"I just made sure Father wasn't going to bother us anymore. (_I killed him._)"

Demi didn't show any reaction to what I had done, but I could tell he understood that I wouldn't say anymore about it, so he just turned and stared straight ahead. We then started to fly in the direction of where Maximum Ride was, because she could help us adapt to being on the run.

**AN: ****What happens now? Keep Reading!**


	10. Survival 101

_**Just a reminder, Terra fainted in the last chapter, so that's why she's waking up here. This was originally going to be a filler, but it turned out to be pretty relevant. Without further ado, here's the story.**_

Terra

I was woken by Talon leaning down to kiss me. It was hard to tell if I was dreaming this, or if this was real…until I felt his leg hit one of my bruises, then the pain told me it was real. Freaking out, I did the only thing I could think of.

"Ew, you perv, get off of me." I screamed, blushing like crazy and throwing him off of me.

"See," Bree said with a smirk. The other part of the pack giggled, "I told you that if you tried to kiss her, she'd come out of it."

I was really pissed off now but more in a humorous sense. I got out of the bed and glared at Bree, who was starting to inch away towards the door.

"BREE… GET BACK HERE! You're gonna get it now!" I screamed.

"No thank you. I like living!" she laughed back.

A comical chase scene ensued, making everyone laugh. Then suddenly, Max came in and totally killed the mood with "Wow, you're doing well for being on the School's most wanted list." Almost immediately, everyone became depressed again.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," She said, with just a hint of blush.

"Ya think?" came the universal response from my group. Myself included..

"Well," Max started, "If you're done moping, I need to start teaching you all about basic survival skills."

For the next four hours, Max gave us all a crash on Survival 101. We learned about setting watch shifts for at night, making a fire, which Talon became infatuated with, how to catch food to eat, and how to cook a decent rat. After that, came all the boring stuff about blending in that we already knew. When Max finally finished, I could hear everyone either yawn or breathe a sigh of relief.

"What are you all relaxing for?" Max said in annoyed tone that made me a little wary, "There's still the final test."

"Final test?" I asked hesitantly, pretty sure I wasn't going to like the answer.

It turns out, the 'final test' sounded quite simple, the Neo-flock goes out in the woods for two days and nights with only the clothes on our backs. On the final night, Max and the others would try to sneak up and attack us, to simulate Erasers and Hunters.

I could tell that it was going to be an interesting experience and an excellent chance for revenge for the whupping Max's Flock gave us when we first met. Me and the rest of the flock flew off into the deepest part of the woods surrounding the house and tried to remember all the things Max tried to teach us. Needless to say, it was painfully evident that we were going to be lacking in the survival department for a while.

"How did Max say to start a fire?" Demi asked.

"She said to rub two sticks together and try to light some tinder, like leaves or something." Juli answered.

"I'll make the fire you guys," Talon said, looking eager, "go ahead and relax. I'll have it lit in no time."

If anyone else on this planet knows more ways to rub two sticks together, I'd like them to talk to Talon. He must have spent hours rubbing the sticks furiously in different ways until he finally got a small flame going.

"I did it!" he screamed when the little flame sprung to life, "I AM THE MASTER OF FIRE!"

"Um, Master of Fire," I said, stifling my laughing, "a breeze just blew your fire out."

Talon cursed so violently, Juli and I had to hold Lexis' and Zell's ears to prevent their pure, innocent minds from being corrupted. He sat back down and grumbled, re-starting the fire while the rest of us divided the watch.

"I'll take the first watch," I said, "Talon might be the best for the job, but he's too tired from making the fire."

"Dang right I am!" Talon grumbled from where he was squatting, "I lost feeling in my arms hours ago."

"Right," I said, "I'll take the first watch, Demi, you'll take the second, Juli will take the third, and Talon will take the last shift."

"What about me?" Bree whined, "Why didn't I get a shift?"

"Oh," I said with a devilish grin, "you're going to be much too tired after catching and making dinner to keep watch."

"Oh okay, that makes-" she said, "Wait...what?"

"Make us something good Bree!" Zell said.

"Why me?" she moaned.

Bree had a little trouble at first, but after Talon gave her some hunting tips, Bree managed to catch four wild birds that were unlucky enough to be on the ground. By then, Talon had managed to make his fire suitable for cooking. While the birds were cooking, we sat around the fire in silence. We all knew what the awkward tension was caused by…our escape. I was sure everyone was staring at me, even though I never looked up.

I knew why they were staring. I mean, who doesn't want to stare at a monster? They had all seen the massacre at my hands, and they all feared me because of it. Or did they? They were my family right? They would still love me no matter what, right? I needed to see their faces to know the truth, even if that truth killed me. I slowly raised my eyes and looked around.

The only person looking in my general direction was Talon, and I was pretty sure that was only to avoid looking at Demi, who never let his eyes off Talon. I could see something in both of their gazes; Demi's a hint of concern and pressure, Talon's a desire to be left alone thinly veiled by a calm face.

I could only see these things because I had known these two guys since forever, and I always know when something is up between them. I was about to grab Talon and go someplace alone so I could make him explain what happened, but then I remember that whatever he did paled in comparison to what I did, so who was I to give advice?

"Terra?" Lexis asked from the other side of the fire with a worried tone, "is something wrong?"

Now all eyes were on me, and they would remember what I had done and hate me.

"No sweety," I lie, "I'm just thinking, that's all."

"She's probably just thinking of revenge for the way we woke her up this morning," Bree snickered beside me.

She then proceeded to pucker her lips and lean towards me with her arms wide open. Everyone burst into quiet laughter, and I surprised myself when I started laughing too. How could I have doubted my flock, the people who would have my back no matter what.

"That reminds me," I said, grinning mischievously at Bree, "COME HERE YOU!"

I grabbed Bree in a headlock, then noogied her head until she begged for mercy. Now there was nothing that could keep down the laughter that ensued, so we just laughed as loud as we wanted. For some reason, the bird we accidentally let burn on the fire still tasted good. I think it was the fact that for the first time in a while, we had all laughed without some new fresh hell ruining it.

As everyone else got settled in to sleep, I made my way to the nearest tall tree, used my wings to help me leap fifteen feet to a relatively high branch, and settled myself in for the first watch. As Max had explained to all of us, keeping watch was one of the most important, and the most boring jobs we had to do. I followed her advice and set up a pattern; fast three-sixty, slow three-sixty, listen fifteen minutes, slow three-sixty, repeat. This at least kept my mind occupied for the first few hours, but when it eventually became routine, then my thoughts wandered.

By now, everyone else was asleep, albeit lightly; Max had instilled us with paranoia that she said would keep us safe. As I kept my eye on everything, my mind kept flashing back to when I slaughtered those Erasers back at the School. I remembered their screams of pain, and later on, their screams for mercy.

I was genuinely scared. Not that I had slaughtered those Erasers even though they pleaded with me to spare their lives, but what scared me was the realization that I had enjoyed it. All that power, speed, bloodlust, I had wanted it more than anything. I stared at my right hand and watched as I transformed it back and forth from wolf paw to human hand and back again.

I knew now that my flock would always have my back, no matter what…but what if I couldn't be trusted to cover their backs? I went berserk back at the School, and who knows what could have happened if one of my pack had tried to stop me. My mind took these thoughts and assaulted me with images of my pack, mutilated by my hands.

After my watch was over, I hopped down and woke Demi up quietly. I knew I wouldn't sleep a wink that night, because the only thought my mind kept thinking of was what would eventually happen if that primal fury was accidentally released at my pack…I mean flock. I was already starting to think like a mindless, bloodthirsty wolf, so how much longer until I started killing like one?

**AN:** **Troubling Thoughts in Terra's head...so many things happening…But luckily, there's an opportunity for fun just around the corner! Can anyone say…BEACH PARTY? XD**


	11. Beach Party Anyone?

**AN:**** To let you know, the changed length of the chapters due to the material I've added, is forcing me to make new chapters. This will be a little bit confusing, but bear with me! New readers: Please read and Review! In This Chapter, BEACH PARTY XD and Terra makes a huge decision!**

**Talon**

At about one in the morning, Juli woke me up to take the last, longest, and according to Max, the most dangerous watch, because enemies were certain to try and catch us when we're all sleepy and tired. Juli seemed a little worried, so I asked her why she was so jumpy.

"It's Terra," she replied in a whisper.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked, immediately awake and concerned.

"She's been moaning and groaning in her sleep all night," She said, "and according to Demi, when she finished her watch, she looked dead."

"Don't worry too much about it," I said, hiding how worried I really was, "She was probably just tired from her watch, and tried to go to sleep only to have a nightmare. I'll keep an eye on her, so you relax and go get some sleep."

"Yeah, you're probably right," she yawned, "I'll see you in the morning. Hope you have a good watch."

"Alright, See ya…" I replied with a smile.

I followed the scents of everybody who kept watch to find the tree that served as our lookout tower. As I got closer, I smelled something different from the usual flock smells, something that my cat-like instincts were powerfully rejecting. It got so bad that I had to find a different tree to keep watch from.

As I used my 'hyper-senses' to keep watch, my arm throbbed painfully. I couldn't think of a reason why it would be bothering me, until I remembered the dart the near-dead Eraser shot at me. I hoped I wasn't poisoned or something, because Terra had gone through enough pain to last a lifetime in the past three days alone, she didn't need to be worrying about me.

Speaking of Terra, she was moaning and groaning, just like Juli said. From taking what she was saying in her sleep, I could tell she was having a nightmare about killing those erasers, and the guilt from it was tearing her apart. I wanted to comfort her, but how could I? I had killed Father when I could have just flown away, and I also killed him slowly and painfully when I could have jabbed him with a finger and be done with it. I had done something just as bad as what she did.

A twig snapping in the real world snapped me into full alert. Now, I don't mean to brag, and I'm not complimenting the School or anything, but if I concentrate hard enough and the weather conditions were good, no person can do anything within a 3/4-mile radius without me knowing about it. I couldn't identify what it was, but I knew it was heading towards us really fast.

I leapt down from my branch and woke everyone up. We weren't as paranoid as Max and the others, so by the time everyone was aware enough to fight, the threat had us surrounded. We got ready for the fight of our lives, but instead we heard clapping.

"Good job you guys," a familiar voice said, "you're officially good enough to be able to keep the School from catching you. Not as good as _us_, mind you, but pretty good."

"Max?" I asked, extremely confused.

"No, I'm the Easter Bunny," Max said as she stepped out of the dark woods into our clearing.

"You said you were going to attack us tomorrow night," Juli said groggily, "Why the early ambush?"

"To test if you guys were ready for anything unexpected," she answered, "The School's not going to let you know when they're going to attack, so you always have to be ready."

I was really glad we were on Max's side, because it was painfully obvious how much better they were than us.

"By the way, you all passed the test with flying colors." she said with a slight air of being impressed, "I will say I am impressed with how well you guys ate tonight, I mean, we're always getting stuck with rats, but you guys ate _bird_!"

"It wasn't so hard," Bree lied, trying to sound tough, "catching them was easy."

"Really now Bree?" I said, amused, "so you _didn't_ beg me on your knees for my help in catching the birds."

"Um…" she stammered nervously.

"Busted." Zell snickered.

Bree hung her head while we all laughed. Well, all of us except for Terra, because all she did was give an empty smile.

"So now what do we do, now that we've passed your test?" Terra asked, "Are we leaving soon or something?"

"We're leaving in three days if nothing crazy happens," Max said, "but in the meantime, we have surprise for all of you. After the sun rises we're going swimming."

"But we don't have-" I started.

"Nudge and Fang went shopping yesterday and picked out some swimsuits for all of you." Max said, "They're back at the house."

We quickly flew to the house and changed into the swimsuits that were graciously provided. I have to say that whoever bought them had good tastes and I wondered how they knew what our sizes were.

We pulled on some normal clothes over them so we wouldn't freeze while flying to the lake. We ate a big breakfast, courtesy of Iggy, who let us know that Max couldn't cook and it was so comical to see her trying to hit a blind boy who could dodge every smack she threw, we took off towards the mountain lake.

When we got there, we found that the lake itself was HUGE! I mean, you could have fit a football field inside of it... We landed gracefully on the shore and set up umbrellas and stripped down to our bathing suits. Due to the death threats for peeking issued by Nudge, the guys and the girls changed in different parts of the woods.

All of us guys had hawaiin-style swim trunks on, with different patterns of tropical flowers on them. It was very obvious that Fang wanted to see Max in a bikini, and that Nudge wanted Max to act a little more girly. Because when Max emerged from behind the trees, mine, Fang's, and Demi's jaw dropped like lead anvils.

You all know I love Terra to pieces, but I am a guy for pete's sake! Max was wearing an orange bikini, that I will admit, _really_ complimented her lean, strong body. She must have noticed Fang and I staring at her, because she blushed and pulled a towel around her.

"Sexist pigs." I heard her mutter under her breath.

Fang looked disappointed, and I was about to compliment his good eye for picking the swimsuit when Terra came out of some bushes. It was _my _jaw's turn to drop even further this time, because Terra looked…for lack of a better word…hot!

Max couldn't hold a candle to Terra in a hotness competition. Nudge had picked out a flattering green tankini for Terra, and I applaud her for her amazing judgment. It gave me the same reaction of me looking at her in her favorite nightgown, the suit wasn't that special, but anything she wore seemed to radiate the same beauty she did.

"Talon," she murmured nervously, her face as red as a beet, "can you please stop staring and close your mouth? You might let flies in."

"Sorry," I said, closing my mouth and turning away, "you just look so...wow!" She blushed even more.

_ "Wow_," Terra thought to herself while looking at Talon in his swim trunks, "_Talon is pretty well muscled for a guy who just sleeps all the time. Wait, why am I staring at his gorgeous body? Wait, why did I call his body gorgeous? Aaaah!"_

"C'mon everyone," Angel called from the middle of the lake, "quit ogling each other and come play!"

Now Max, Fang, Terra, and I were all blushing furiously.

"_Angel, you are SO gonna get it now!_" we all thought.

Angel probably heard this, because she squealed and dived underwater. We ran in after her and everyone went crazy. We played every game you could possibly play underwater and then some. We had a diving contest to see who could dive the deepest from mid-air, which Angel won, of course.

Finally, we had a swimsuit competition that Terra opted out of, much to my disappointment. Max and Juli tied for 'hottest looking', while Fang and I tied in 'better looking with shirt off'. Nudge made the categories, so don't think any less of me.

As the day ran on, we all settled down and Juli, Max, Bree, and Nudge all laid down to soak up some sun. Fang, Iggy, and the four little ones were all still playing as energetically as before. Me, I got out of the water after they started splashing a lot, because you all know how much I _love_ splashing water.

Yeah, so I settled up on a sun-baked rock to take a cat nap. I forgot that this would make me a target for everyone else to pick on, so I had no warning when Gazzy swooped down and pelted me with water balloons.

While drying off and finding a safer place to nap, I spotted Terra sitting away from everyone else. I thought that was a bit odd, so I flapped my wings a few times, then glided lightly over to her.

"Terra," I said, "why aren't you trying to get a tan like Juli and Bree?"

"It's nothing," she lied, with a painfully fake smile, "I just don't feel that well."

I decided to let it be for the moment. I found a safer perch and settled down for a nice, long, nap.

Terra

I saw Talon curl up on a rock to nap, and Angel was playing with Fang and the others, so I knew it was safe to think freely. My mind just couldn't stop thinking about the massacre, how I had become the very thing we were fighting against, and slaughtered them like cattle.

I knew I couldn't run the risk of me going crazy and hurting anyone. I knew I had to leave, but I couldn't leave them now, not after all they've been through. Then I realized that to stay there was more painful for me and dangerous for them.

"C'mon everyone," Max yelled, "let's get back to the house before it gets too dark, besides, we have to pack for when we leave tomorrow."

Everyone whined at this except Angel, who was staring at me intently with a piercing glare. I hoped she hadn't been reading my mind, because she might tell Talon, or Max. But she didn't say anything when she gathered with everyone, so I didn't think anymore about it.

We all dried off, got our clothes back on, and flew back to the house. To spare the boring details of the rest of the day which I don't really remember anyway, I will skip to where I become an emo-kid. After everyone had gone to sleep, I sat on the roof, my turn on watch duty, still thinking about what I had to do, to make sure I wouldn't hurt anyone I cared about.

As I thought of what to do with myself, Talon came and sat beside me. He was invisible, his dark clothes blended pretty well with the dark, and I was a little caught up in my own thoughts, so I didn't notice him until he became visible right next to me; making me jump three feet in the air.

"Didn't mean to scare you," he said, "Sorry."

"It's ok." I tell him, still trying to slow my racing heart down, "Max would be livid if she saw how easily you snuck up on me when I'm supposed to be keeping watch."

Talon laughed lightly, but I found myself unable to fake even a smile. Talon noticed it and scooted closer to me.

"What's wrong Terra?" he asked, a concerned look on his face, "You've been out of it ever since we got back."

I tried to say something to throw him off, but instead my mouth decided to speak the truth. All of it spilled out, and I couldn't stop it.

"I've got too much on my mind Talon." I said, breaking down, "You're so nice to me…but you shouldn't. I'm just a bloodthirsty monster. I killed all of those Erasers at the School, and I liked every moment of it."

"You are not a monster Terra, you're just a girl who has gone through a lot of hard experiences." Talon said, "Juli told me that if you hadn't transformed, the Erasers would have torn Lexis' wings off. I would have reacted the same way you did, so stop beating yourself up about it."

"Thank you Talon, you're probably too nice for me," I said while I pulled him into a deep hug, "but I'm too much of a danger to everyone else to stay. Goodbye Talon, take good care of the flock for me."

"Wait, what are you say-" he said, trying to break away.

Still grabbing him, I pushed him backwards and hit his head against the roof, knocking him out cold.

Tears racing down my cheeks, I wrote a small note on a slip of paper, and dropped it onto Talon's unconscious face. I then took off into the night sky, leaving behind my only family; not knowing or caring where I was going. As I flew, I let myself fully be able to cry over the unforgivable thing I'd just done. I hoped that everyone would be okay without me. With one final look back, I turned and flew away.

Later, I landed somewhere by the mountain lake and abruptly curled up into the smallest ball I could by the edge of the water, and tried my hardest to just vanish, so I couldn't hurt anyone. I was a freak of freaks, I wasn't human…I was the same stuff the Old Flock's worst nightmares were made of…and I just devastated those who needed me the most by leaving.

"…Terra?" a small angelic voice asked from a few feet away.

I uncurled, looked up, and rubbed my eyes to see Angel standing there. She smiled at me and walked over, helping me up into a sitting position.

"I know your not a monster, Terra…" She said gently, "…because if you're feeling this bad about what you did, you won't do it again."

Wow, my entire logic of running away was just shot down by a six-year old. We spent the next few hours going back and forth; with me telling her reasons why I couldn't stay, and Angel shooting them all down with the precision of a machine.

When we were done, I felt a lot better, maybe it wasn't so bad after all that I was an Eraser. Angel and I agreed that I still needed a few days to gather my thoughts. The last thing I remember before blacking out was a rustle in the bushes behind us.

**AN****: What fresh horror will happen? Find out next chapter!**


	12. Terra's Back! Or Is She?

**AN:**** Terra's gone, and everyone is devastated…read on for the rest…please read and review.**

Talon

I woke up with the largest crick in my neck. I swear; the pop my neck made was probably heard around the world. I found a small, folded piece of paper on my face when I thought I couldn't see.

After reading it, I quietly went downstairs to the rest of the sleeping flocks. Just my movement through the room was enough to wake everyone up; Man, those people need to relax.

"Terra's gone." I breathed. My enhanced ears were screaming in pain from the deafening "WHAT?" that burst from everybody's mouth. A lot of "Why's" were asked; and I pulled out Terra's note that I found stuck to my head.

_To Whoever it concerns,_

_If you're reading this, I am already long gone. Please don't look for me. I don't want to put you all in unnecessary danger. Talon and Juli, you two will lead the Neo-flock for me. I know you will do a good job. Don't worry about me. I will be fine on my own. Talon, I'm sorry that I had to knock you unconscious, but if I had just left, you would have followed me. I am sorry that I have to leave, but I am just a danger to everyone around me. Take care, and I love all of you._

_ -Terra_

I was obviously not the only one extremely depressed by this news; everyone in both flocks was wearing crushed faces, but I felt the emotional blow much deeper. In my mutant heart that for the past couple of days had been weaker from an almost perpetual state of depression and despair, and slightly helped by the swimming antics.

I felt my flickering candle of hope and will to live finally go out. I stood up from my chair, walked towards the stairs to the roof, but was stopped when I felt Demi's hand on my shoulder.

"If you want to talk about it, we're all here for you." He said, sounding concerned, knowing that I would take this the worst.

"Thanks Demi," I whispered, "but I just want to be alone for awhile."

And with that, I walked slowly up the stairs to the roof of the house. When I sat down, the dam in my mind that was my self-control broke loose, because the only thing keeping it together had just knocked me out and left me and her family to fend for themselves.

Everything that was wrong in my oh-so screwed up life came forward and expressed itself. I don't remember falling asleep, but I think I drifted off after about two hours of thinking about Terra's smile and how I'd never see it again.

Bree could almost feel Talon's misery from all the way on the ground floor. "_Man, he's taking this pretty badly._" she thought.

She felt seriously sorry for her little brother. They never really shared that strong sibling bond like Lexis and Juli did, but she still loved him (like a brother). He was always the one who would just sit there and watch the rest of us, mainly Terra, with a smile on his face.

"_Terra,_" Bree thought to herself while surveying everyone's pained looks, "_how could you do this to Talon, after all that's happened to us; we need you now more than ever, Talon needs you more than ever, and you abandon ship?_"

Everyone in the Neo-Flock had been sad or depressed before, but Bree had never seen everyone so depressed before. Talon's hair had been so blue; it looked like the ocean. Lexis and Zell, the resident bundles of joy, were sitting on the floor, and talking to one another in hushed whispers. Demi and Juli didn't show any sign of sadness, but Bree knew that they were seriously hurting inside. Even Max's flock seemed to be upset over Terra's absence. All of them were.

Max

While Max had only met Terra a few days ago when she was trying to bring Max back to the School, she was thinking she missed Terra as much as the rest of the Neo-Flock. Max thought long and hard, but couldn't think of a reason why she would become a danger to her family, and that's what confused her.

Max wracked her brain trying to come up with a reason why she would leave when she realized Angel was nowhere to be seen. Max was about to freak out and organize a search party, when she remembered that Angel could take care of herself and the School had no idea where they were, so it was safe enough to be allowed to fly alone for a little while.

Max looked around and saw that everyone in her flock was as upset as she was, with the exception of Fang. He looked almost…annoyed? She would have to talk to him about what he was thinking later. The Neo-flock was paralyzed with grief and he was getting _annoyed_? That would be addressed _soon_.

Right now, though; Max needed to be a leader and formulate a plan for finding Terra. She knew Terra wouldn't be happy with them looking for her, but when did Max ever do what someone else has told her to? She'd just wait until Angel got back and then she would explain her plan to everyone.

Demi

Two days after Terra had left, everyone was still as crushed as before. Talon had ignored our pleas for him to come down from the roof, and he continued to refuse to eat or drink anything. Demi knew enough about science to know that Talon was in danger of dying of thirst.

He resolved to himself that if Talon didn't come down after noon, he'd drag him down and force him to drink something. While Terra may have left the Neo-flock in his and Juli's care, Juli wasn't much of a leader (more of a follower really), and Talon was too crushed to lead anything.

Demi and Juli had talked with each other about Terra's disappearance for at least an hour that morning and were now able to somewhat function normally; Demi had always believed that to cope with loss and pain, you needed to talk about it with your friends. Talon and Terra had always kept their sadness to themselves, making their personalities somewhat volatile.

But Demi was far from being okay though-he felt like part of his soul had been ripped out. Terra was a part of him and the flock; a part necessary for normal function. Without her, Demi doubted that the Neo-Flock would be able to keep out of the School's grasp for very long.

Demi stood from the couch where he was talking with Juli, and with all those pairs of eyes on him he couldn't help but get a little nervous; Terra and Talon were much better at this "leader" stuff. He slowly took off his sunglasses, revealing his coal-like eyes to the Old Flock for the first time, who gaped in awe at them.

"I don't care what Terra said in that letter." Demi started, trying to inspire confidence, "We are going to go find he-—"

"Where's Angel?" Max stood up and looked around her almost worriedly, like she had forgotten something really important, then turned her face to Fang. "Angel's not back, Fang… I thought she went out for a quick fly two days ago, so I didn't think too much about it. But she's not back yet!"

Everyone started frantically getting out of their chairs to look, when Max suddenly stiffened and froze as if stunned. Everyone was tenses up, expecting the worst. Jeb was silent, watching Max. Max closed her eyes, nodded, gave a big sigh of relief and flopped backwards onto the couch.

"Angel went out to look for Terra alone." She sighed happily and relieved, "She found her and she's bringing her back as we speak."

Everyone sighed in a sad sort of relief.

"Is she okay?" Zell asked Max.

Lexis rushed into Juli's arms and start weeping for joy, the delayed display of emotion came tumbling out . Demi went over, with Bree, to the window and she called up to the roof,

"TALON! ANGEL BROUGHT TERRA BACK!"

When she didn't get a response, she flew up to the roof and—a few minutes later—brought back the sleeping Talon, who's hair color was still that deep shade of blue that was slowly changing as Bree whispered in his ear.

As soon as she said it for the fifth time, Talon FINALLY jolted awake and jumped up, staring at everyone.

"Where is she?" He asked, looking anxious, crazed, and very physically weak.

"She's with Angel right now…" Bree stated for what seemed to be the seventh time.

Max smiled at Talon and stood up, walking over towards the door and opening it to reveal Terra and Angel, who walked in nonchalantly. Angel swiftly latched onto Max as the Neo-Flock dive-bombed Terra into a mess of arms and legs.

"Okay, okay guys…get off me for a—" Terra grunted through the mess of hugs.

Demi heard both Bree and Lexis, who were closest to Terra in the hug, cry out in pain and rest of the flock jumped back in surprise. Bree and Lexis both had deep scratches on their arms. As Fang, Juli and Max went to go patch them up, Terra sat up and stared at one of her outstretched wings.

"….Jeb….The…the wings are metal, aren't they? Pure, light metal…" she said in disbelief.

"I'd have to run a series of tests, but that's what it looks like." Jeb said, staring at her with a baffled look in his eyes.

"Let's find out the quick way!" Gazzy said.

He leapt up and ran to Terra's wing and punched it as hard as he could. The only thing that came out of Gazzy's mouth after that was a very strained "ow".

Then he erupted into "" until he finally got out "Yep, that's definitely metal; oh, and OW!"

So that just added a new item on the day's drama list: One, Terra runs away, Two, Talon becomes emo boy, Three, Terra comes back a few hours later, Four, Terra's wings are now made of metal. What could be worse now? I wondered grimly, watching Terra flex the wings as if shocked and amazed. And somehow…something about Terra seemed off, but I couldn't say what.

**Next Chapter:**** Terra's Back! That's a good thing…right? **


	13. What's up with Talon!

**This Chapter:****What's up with Terra? Even more importantly, why is Talon's arm hurting so much? Find out! Read and Review!**

Terra?

I was glad to be back with everyone to start my mission, but I knew that sooner or later, someone would ask for an explanation. The question was asked, but not in the method I had expected.

"_Terra, I want to speak to you privately,"_ came a whispered message from Talon.

"_Okay" _I breathed, and he nodded silently. "I'm a little tired everyone, so I'm going to sleep."

Everyone let me go, so when I got to the stairs to the roof, I didn't need to answer any questions. Stupid fools. I could fool them this easily from the beginning? That was nice to know. Best also to keep my thoughts to myself. It'd be easier to hide my secret that way. When I got on the roof, Talon was already there. Dang, that boy was fast going from point a to point b—something I hadn't read about in the file.

"Hey," I said gently, trying to match _her_ reactions towards the boy, basically not wanting to upset him.

"Hey," was the response I got, so I assumed he wasn't mad at all for my…"disappearance".

Again, that was a good thing. I sat down next to him like the original would and we sat in silence for a good half an hour.

"Why'd you do it Terra?" He finally asked.

I knew that eventually, that question would need to be answered somehow, and I thought that I had the right answer. At least, for the moment I thought it was the right answer.

"You said it yourself, Talon; that even we have the right to live. But…Erasers…they destroy people. They hurt people…and I didn't want that to happen to all of you." I sniffled, laying it on thick, "I mean, I happily destroyed the entire thing of Erasers, and they were still human, still had those rights to life like I did…"

Fake tears slowly started to fall down my face, and I forced myself to look away as if I really was upset about the whole thing but it was really to hide a smirk that was on my face. I quickly faded it to a hurt look as Talon's hand gently grasped my cheek and pulled my head to turn back to him.

"Yea I admit it," He said flatly, "you're a monster in a way for doing that—"

I was mentally laughing at that point, but kept my calm and looked hurt by that comment. The way he said it was so cold and uncaring, I had to interrupt him like she probably would have.

"How could you say such a thing!" I cried in what I thought was a convincing tone of disbelief, "How can you be so cruel Talon? I thought we were friends."

"And when do friends abandon each other when things go bad!" was his angry response.

I was shocked; Father said that Talon wasn't so cold towards the original Terra; that he was always the one to make her feel **better**. I took a good amount of silence before I spoke again.

"I know…I know." I murmured, "But how can I be a friend when I can't even control myself, Talon! I could burst one day….and you…you would have had to…"

I couldn't say it. I just couldn't say it. I knew he would react to this pretty badly, but not with a hard slap across the face. I tried to feign a sense of shock for the slap.

"If you think about it, Terra, **I'm** a monster too." He said sternly, "I killed Father, after all."

I froze then, my head still sideways from the force of Talon's slap. That was really nice. I wanted to kill him now, but sheer will forced me not to. After an awkward silence I turned my head, ignoring the dull throb in my cheek.

"Y-you…what?" I stammered, barely concealing my smirk.

What little Taly didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Yes…I killed him." he said emotionlessly, "Snapped his neck with my bare hands and loved doing it."

"…I don't know whether to say 'good job' and give you a pat on the head," I said with as soft of a fake smile as I could manage, "or get you in a neck-lock and make you beg for mercy, Inu."

I almost thought my small joke went flat, until he pulled me into a hug and laughed lightly. Nestling his head into my hair, he took a sniff, grimaced, and pulled back.

"You definitely need a bath-AH!" He flinched, hand instinctively grabbing his arm and then let go of it just as quick.

Acting confused, although I knew full well what was going on, I tilted my head and looked at him with concern.

"Talon?"

"I got hit with a dart while 'rescuing' you after you went berserk at the School." he grimaced, trying to blow of the pain, "and well…I don't know what happened. It didn't hurt when it hit me…"

Dang, he was starting to suspect, the serum wouldn't be permanent for a few more minutes now. I thought of something to say to delay him, fast.

"Jeb…we need you to see him now." I cried in mock worry, reaching down and helping him up, "Who knows what kind of crap they've got in your system!"

He yelped a bit at my grip on his arm and shook his head.

"I go to Jeb; you go to bath. NOW."

I flinched as a response, and smirked.

"No way on that Inu."

With that, my metallic wings spread and I dove off the roof, flying into an open window and laid back in a bed. There was no way I was going to let them catch me. They would find out soon who they were dealing with, so I might as well just play the part for now, right?

"T-BATH, NEO-FLOCK!" Talon's voice bellowed from the roof.

Did he just say what I think he just said? If he did, I was now in trouble. Really big trouble. At least, if they found it out…I hoped that I could imitate Terra as well as Father said I could.

Juli

As soon as Talon screamed what he did, Juli stood up from her seat in the living room and motioned for the others in the flock.

"T-Bath? What's a T-Bath?" Angel asked, sitting on Max's lap with her stuffed bear Celeste nestled in her arms.

Juli turned towards her and smiled, while the other neo-flock girls gathered around her.

"Terra doesn't like baths; she prefers showers…" Juli explained, "kind of like the opposite of Talon. But ever since the escape from the school," All of the Neo-Flock flinched, but she continued, "She hasn't taken a real bath. Rain "showers" aren't enough and the lake water was pretty dirty. She's too stubborn to take a bath by herself, so…we have to find her and _make_ her take a bath. Simple as that."

The next thing Juli heard was an "INITIATE THE ATTACK!" from Talon. Which meant that a war was about to begin, and for the sake of our noses, failure was not an option.

Demi

Demi was standing outside the door to the bathroom, and boy, was it scary. The noises that came from the bathroom sounded like a bar fight had broken out in there.

"Now I know what World War III will sound like." he heard Max say from downstairs.

Realizing that he could be standing there all day waiting to use the ONLY BATHROOM IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE, Demi went downstairs to join the conversation. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Jeb stick a needle into Talon's arm and draw some blood.

"Alright Talon," He began, sounding like a doctor about to give his patient instructions, "don't do anything too strenuous, because I'm not quite sure what they did to you just yet."

Demi sat down in the closest chair, cringing when he heard a loud crash come from the bathroom, followed by yelling and a loud splash. He had to admit, this was one of the most dramatic T-Baths he had ever heard.

"Does this happen every time she has to take a bath?" Nudge asked, Before Demi could open my mouth to answer, Talon answered with a resounding "**YES.**" Just then, the noise from the bathroom quieted.

"It sounds like the war has been won," Gazzy said. Everybody burst into laughter. Demi noticed that Talon was the only one not laughing, because he was clutching his arm like it was in pain.

"Hey Talon, you okay?" Demi asked, concerned

"Yeah," he lied, "probably just a cramp or something."

We all heard Fang come down from the early evening watch, which meant it was either Talon's or Iggy's turn; because of their better senses, they could do a much better job keeping watch at night. Iggy somehow must have caught on to Talon's mysterious arm pain and got up to go, but Talon stopped him.

"I'm fine you guys, my arm just hurts, that's all." he said defensively, "It's not the end of the world!"

He was walking towards the door when Jeb came running through the house, screaming "WAIT!"

Talon turned to look at him, but his arm jerked around in obvious pain. Before any of us could react, he was on the floor, twitching around on the floor, screaming like he was in extreme pain. Max and Fang both tried to reach down and pick him up

"**NO, DON'T TOUCH HIM!**" Jeb yelled.

Everyone froze where they were, even Terra who had just come out of the bathroom in a bathrobe, looking completely miserable.

"Why," Max asked, "shouldn't we try to help him?"

"Yes," he said, "but the best way we can help him right now is to avoid all physical contact."

"Once again, WHY?" Max demanded.

"Talon was injected with an experimental chemical compound that was under study by the School. It would induce an attack of what would look like hyperalgesia, which increases the sensations produced by pain exponentially. Which means that to Talon, pain that would only be an annoyance to us would be extremely painful to him. But that would be a normal case of hyperalgesia, and this isn't that. What the drug is forcing Talon's body and brain to experience is an all-encompassing hyperalgesia that includes ALL of his senses. And since Talon's senses are already hyper-sensitive…I honestly don't see how he is still conscious." Jeb explained.

"Wait a minute Jeb," Max said, "if this stuff has been inside him since the Neo-Flock escaped the school, why is it only affecting him now?"

"Because," Jeb explained, "They didn't inject him with the actual compound, but with a drug that is forcing his body to make the nerve stimulant at random intervals. If I had been able to get to him sooner, I might have been able to reverse this… but I'm afraid he'll go into these episodes of excruciating pain periodically for the rest of his life."

"Talon!" Terra cried as she ran down the stairs.

She had obviously not heard Jeb's warning to not touch Talon while he was like this, because she tried to hug and comfort him. But the moment she touched him, he started going into violent muscle spasms, and his cry of pain made us cringe and all of us turned our heads away as to not look at him like this.

Throughout his "nerve attack" Talon was crying "Terra…it hurts…help me Terra…I don't want to die." Terra herself was in tears. I myself don't blame her. There was one of her flock, in excruciating pain, and she couldn't do anything to help. It was probably just my tired mind playing tricks on me, but I swore I saw Terra's face twist into an evil grin in between her sobs.

Talon fell unconscious about fifteen minutes after "nerve attack" started, so we decided to move him upstairs into one of the bedrooms to let him sleep it off. Angel, Max, Juli and Bree went to go comfort the sniffling Terra, while Fang looked on in total…disgust? I frowned and stood, walking over towards him.

"She shouldn't be crying." he said, "It's not that bad. He'll live through it."

As Fang was rambling on in a quiet tone on how Terra was being weak and pathetic, my rage slowly grew and expanded before I finally lifted my hand and b****-slapped him across the face—I didn't know that the sudden force of it would make him reel backwards and fall to the floor.

It was deadly silent then in the room, while Fang rubbed the side of his face. Worried gazes went from me to Fang and back to me. Max stood, walking over to Fang and reached out a hand to help him up. He glared at me as she pulled him upwards—I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Alright guys…let's stop fighting now…" Iggy said, "Fang, you dissed their leader, and got slapped, we're all even now."

"You didn't even know what we were talking about!" Fang attempted to retort, but Terra advanced and stood in front of him, her watery eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I knew what you were talking about, Fang. I'm not stupid. And really-I'm only thirteen. I can cry as much as Angel, Zell or even someone normal and perfectly human, and not a total nightmare to the pack, can. Even if you're older than me by however many years, there are still some things you need to learn."

"Hunh? Danger to the pack?" Nudge asked, puzzled.

She and the rest of the Old Flock didn't know about Terra's Eraser transformation ability, and Demi clamped his hand over Terra's mouth before she could argue and give it away. Demi wanted to let the Old Flock know on the Neo-Flock's terms.

"She can ramble sometimes." Demi said, trying to defuse the situation, "I think she went kinda whacky in the head when her wings were transferred."

Terra ran her tongue up and down Demi's fingers, and he pulled his hand away just before she bit them. Looking at her, Demi could have sworn her canines were sharper than usual.

She swiveled around and gracefully jumped back into the chair, wings outstretched. Her position was almost feral in appearance—which scared me a little bit. Demi stared in awe, wiping the spit off of his hand beneath his shirt as Terra's metallic wings actually _fluffed_ as if they were actual feathers.

Her eyes glimmered as she watched each of us in turn before shaking her head and sitting down normally, wings back into their smooth, metallic grey color. Jeb experimentally tapped on her outer part of her wings, then opened up the one closest to him and smoothed her inner wings.

He jumped back as well, staring blankly at her wings with shock. "That….that shouldn't be possible…How did they…" he stammered.

Angel looked out her window and spread out her wings, flapping them a bit as she looked up to the sky. "Full moon tonight. It's so pr—"

Terra turned her head and glared at Angel. I mean glared. As in an evil glare. Something a white coat would do. Angel screamed and dove behind Max, who stood up and glared back at Terra. Somehow…Terra was…off. The wings, her posture as she stood and walked…something wasn't right at all. There was a strange smell in the air, like someone was burning something.

"Wait a second!" Fang yelled quickly to me, "Terra's acting very different, am I right?"

"Yeah," I answered, "what about it?"

"We had a similar problem with Max when she was replaced with a clone from the School sent to kill us," he said quickly, "the same thing could be happening here!"

"Going out with a bang now, aren't we?" Terra said, smiling with a wicked little smile.

The only warning we got was Gazzy screaming "HIT THE DECK!" And judging by the way the other flock took cover, we quickly followed suit….just as Terra exploded in the room.

**Next Chapter:**** WHAT THE HE—CK JUST HAPPENED? Where's the real Terra? And how's Talon going to react to clone-Terra being dead…if everyone else thinks she was the real thing?**


	14. Where's Terra!

**This Chapter:****We see where Terra really is!**

(the real) Terra

Man, did my body hurt. It felt like I had stuck a million forks into electrical outlets and had them all attached to me. Aside from the gory image I just gave myself, I felt fine otherwise. The blindfold over my eyes kept me in the dark, but that didn't stop me from trying to figure out what was going on.

I could tell I was currently being suspended from my hands—that much I was sure, because cool metal was encasing my wrists and apparently I had been suspended by a harness as well, because something was taken off from my torso which allowed me to take in some much needed air.

I felt that same metal come wrap my ankles, and the new, cool metal helped distract me from the fact that I was losing feeling in my arms.

"Hello Terra," Father's voice said from somewhere in the room.

"Father." I growled, "Let me out of these chains so I can kill you!"

It fell quiet for a minute. I heard the tapping of keys so I assumed there were computers, wherever I was. Someone poked me with a pudgy finger, and I knew I managed to slam my wings into the person, knocking them backwards.

"Your strength will manage to kill someone, Terra…please, relax and trust me." Someone forced my wings closed and chained them, making me cry out and thrash about. My arm was held taught and something sharp poked into my arm. It was definitely a needle, because only needles were that sharp.

I tried to struggle against whatever they put into me, but I didn't even last ten minutes.

As I was fading into blackness, I felt someone, probably Father, put a choke collar around my neck.

"That's a much more suitable image for the School's new pet wolf," Father said, "There's still the problem of your attitude, but I'm sure after you go through our 'obedience program', you'll be much more willing to cooperate."

**AN:**** I know it's short. Live with it!**

**Next Chapter:**** The Flocks try to figure out what happened. How could they have replaced Terra with a clone when the real Terra was right with the mind-reading ANGEL!**


	15. Putting the Pieces Together

**AN:**** In an attempt to get more readers and reviewers as well as save you all time and spare confusion for new readers, I have decided to delete the remaining unedited chapters and upload the new ones. (Plus, replacing them was a pain! _) So yeah…here's the new chapter! Please read, enjoy, and review! Plus, read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories, they are awesome!**

**This Chapter:****The Flocks figure out what's going on.**

Talon

I didn't know what actually woke me up, the last surge of pain from my arm, or the gigantic explosion that came from the lower floor of the house. I had literally felt the whole house shake. I wondered if it was one of Iggy's newer experiments that had gone wrong.

I wasn't hurting as much as earlier, so I climbed out of bed and walked slowly down the hallway towards the stairs to find out. As I got nearer to the bottom, I started to smell sulfur, which I've come to know through Iggy is usually a sign of a large explosion. I ran down the last few steps and saw the living room.

It looked like my hunch about a bomb gone wrong was right. I heard hushed voices coming from the kitchen, so I snuck my way towards the door and put my ear up to it.

"How could she have been planning this without us knowing?" a muffled voice said.

"…we probably shouldn't let Talon know about this," another voice murmured, "he might not take it well-"

That was when I opened the door.

Demi

Demi was ready to die right there. Everyone was huddled around Terra's charred remains, trying to figure out what to do. Jeb had spent the last few hours running tests that for what he could tell, affirmed what everyone were afraid of, it wasn't a clone that had exploded! Apparently, the actual Terra had gone suicidal and blown herself up in the living room.

"How could she have been planning this without us knowing?" Max asked.

"I don't know Max," Demi answered with a shrug, "but we probably shouldn't let Talon know about this, he might not take it that well. But we can't let him find out we're lying either, or he'll beat the truth out of us. He hates it when people leave him in the dark."

"Yes I do, Demi." said a voice everybody _really_ didn't want to hear, "So, what is it that you're not going to tell me?"

Everybody present stiffened up and slowly turned around. Talon was standing there with a look that said "_I'm not leaving until I know what's going on_." How were they going to explain that his crush went suicidal and blew up during his nerve attack?

"Well Talon, we weren't going to tell you, but you do have a right to know." Max started, "You see-"

Demi quickly stopped her before she dropped the big bombshell. Max looked at him with a puzzled look.

"What are you doing?" she whispered into his ear, "He needs to find out sooner or later."

"Yes, I know." Demi whispered back, "But gently, you don't know what happens when he gets mad. Let me try to handle this."

Demi turned to Talon, making sure to block his view of the pile of charred flesh on the table. He put one arm around Talon's shoulder, led him away and started walking outside. After a while, Demi decided to drop it all in one blow and hope for the best, because he could not think of a way to explain it that wouldn't get Talon mad.

"Talon," Demi started, almost wincing as he plucked up the courage to drop the bombshell.

"Yeah?" he replied, no-nonsense written in his look.

"Terra killed herself while you were having your 'nerve attack'," Demi blurted, " she blew herself up with a bomb, and we weren't going to tell you so you wouldn't freak out and lose it."

Demi spit out the news like it was a pen signing his own death warrant. As predicted, Talon's face went from shock to hurt to very, very mad and hurt.

"So… you weren't going to tell me that Terra killed herself because you didn't want me to freak out?" he growled, his spiked hair quickly turning that dangerous shade of red, "And how did you expect to keep me in the dark that she's dead? GLUE HER BODY BACK TOGETHER AND STRING IT UP LIKE A PUPPET?"

"_oh boy, there's no stopping him now!"_ Demi thought as Talon gradually degraded more and more into insanity.

But just before Talon raised his fist to start pounding Demi, Max and the rest of the flocks came running across the yard screaming, "IT'S A CLONE, JEB JUST FIGURED IT OUT! IT'S NOT TERRA, TERRA'S NOT DEAD!"

Both Talon and Demi stared in shock, but Demi was calm enough to run towards Max and grab her shoulders. Max just stood there, stunned, as Demi quickly gave her a kiss on the lips. Of course, Demi could tell he had gone from being on Talon's death list, to Fang's.

"Thanks, Max. You saved my life." Demi said, grateful for a reprieve from getting his butt beaten to a bloody pulp.

"What do you mean she isn't dead?" he said, just as confused as everyone else was. "We were with a clone the entire time? When did they make the switch?"

All eyes then turned to Angel, who was in all likely-hood, the last person to see the real Terra; an explanation was necessary. Very necessary.

Angel

Angel looked down to avoid all their stares. It didn't feel good, to be honest. Everybody's eyes just…staring at her…it felt really weird to her.

"Well? How could they grab Terra, replace her with a clone, and make her avoid your mind-reading" Talon asked, his eyes boring into the six-year old like she had kidnapped Terra herself

"Well," Angel started, "I fell asleep in Terra's lap the night before we would be heading back to the house, so she might have been taken when I was sleeping. As for the mind reading, she thought so much like Terra I couldn't tell the difference.'"

"SO WHERE IS TERRA NOW?" Talon screamed hysterically, making Angel cringe under his anger.

"Talon! Stop it!" Max yelled, gathering up Angel in her arms, "she's just six!"

"She knows where Terra is, and she's not telling me! I need to know NOW!"

"Talon…" Max warned, her voice dropping low in warning, "either you calm down, or I will _make_ you calm down. Got it?"

"…"

"_GOT IT?"_

"…yeah, I got it."

A very tense silence followed, but Talon was obviously not going to start anything.

"They took her back to the School…" Angel said, her voice barely there, but her words were as loud as if she had shouted.

Everyone turned white as sheets, and Angel thought that some of the Neo-Flock might have been ready to throw up. Everyone except Talon. The look on his face was scaring Angel, because he looked ready to break somebody's neck. Angel was thankful that Max broke the tension with her usual "leaderly" flair.

"Well, we'd better get going." she said.

Everyone turned to look at Max like she was crazy.

"If we're going to rescue Terra anytime soon, we need to be leaving ASAP."

Everybody's faces lit up with excitement. They were going to get Terra back! Everyone quickly ran back inside the house and began throwing everything they owned into their backpacks. Talon appeared to have done a complete turn-around and was happy as can be.

As they were packing to leave, Nudge noticed a silver bracelet on the floor that wasn't there before.

"Hey, everyone" Nudge asked, "Whose bracelet is that on the floor?"

A unanimous puzzled look told her that it didn't belong to anybody in the group. But if it didn't belong to anyone, where did it come from?

"I thought I saw it on clone-Terra's wrist!" Max gasped, "Which means it could a tracking device that is leading the Erasers right to us!"

Jeb reached down to pick it up, but as soon as he touched it, he leapt back as if his finger had been stung by a bee. Zell bent down to pick the weird bracelet up.

"NO, Don't touch it, it's highly electrified!" Jeb yelled.

But Zell had already picked it up and started to examine it in her hands like nothing was wrong.

"What? That's odd," Jeb said puzzled, "I'm sure I felt an electric shock when I touched it."

Then something really weird started to happen, the air in the room got really full of static electricity and everybody's hair was standing up. Looking closely, Demi could see arcs of electricity jump between the standing strands of Zell's hair.

"Zell, are you doing this?" Demi asked in a timid voice.

"I don't know Demi, but I wanna try something real quick."

With that, she raised her hand up experimentally and snapped her fingers. The last thing Demi saw was an electric spark before the light bulbs in the living room exploded into millions of tiny pieces.

Zell

Whoa…had I just done what I think I just did? Seriously? I stared at the bracelet in my hand, turning it over and over in my fingers to the amazement of my friends. This thing had the capabilities of tazing elephants and there I was holding it like it was a plain, simple bracelet. My hand felt warm, true, and it was kinda comforting…but yea…back to the real world.

I was standing under the shattered light, feeling the warmth in my hands, totally aware that I was surrounded by shattered glass that lightly coated me like baby powder. Well…sharp, baby powder, but that wasn't the point. I smiled sweetly as my friends gather around me.

Talon laughed nervously, and attempted to dust me off. A soft "crack" sound came from where he touched me and I just turn and stare as he hissed like a pissed off kitty-cat, and jumped back while holding his affected hand.

"What the heck, Zell?" he cried, "Why'd you do that?"

"It wasn't my fault!" I answered, shaking myself to get off the dust from the glass, "I can't control it! It was just an accident."

"You're a walking electric hazard as far as I am concerned." Talon said, licking his hand where I had zapped him, "Let's get you outside so we can fully clean you off and not explode any more light bulbs or electrocute people in the process."

Jeb smiled at me as I carefully walked outside, he and Demi following in tow. When we get outside, I started to brush myself off with everyone else standing seven feet away from me, like they were afraid that I was going to shock everyone who got too close. Which I wasn't, I hoped, but a safety precaution was needed.

After I was dust-free, we all went back inside to try and regain some sense about what was happening. Max stood up and started taking control of the chaos of that day.

"So," she started, needing only that one word to get complete control "unless I'm wrong, what has happened and what will happen came and will come in this order: Terra left two days ago, Terra is switched with a clone, Talon's nerve poison activates, Clone-Terra explodes, Zell discovers an ability to control electricity, we plan for Terra's rescue, we actually rescue her, and finally we are on the run again. Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah you missed something," Talon said impatiently, with a touch of anger underneath it, "you missed that every minute we waste here could be a minute closer to being too late."

"Talon," Max said, raising her voice slightly in her steeled tone, "you need prove to me you can control your anger during the mission, or you will stay here and wait for us."

"How can you order me to keep calm when Terra could be killed at any second?" Talon yelled, his eyes taking on a pale yellow tinge and his pupils thinning.

"Because unless you calm down, you will be a danger to everyone around you, including us!" Max screamed, startling everyone, "Now, I'm willing to wait for you to cool off, so how long are you willing to keep Terra waiting so you can finish your temper tantrum?"

I know I'm only eight, but I could tell when people were treading into _very_ dangerous territory, and Max wasn't treading, she was full-on _sprinting_! I remembered all too well what happened the _last_ time Talon went berserk, and I wasn't really wanting an encore any time soon.

I saw Demi tense up, preparing for the worst, should it happen, but Talon surprised both of us. Talon took a deep breath and his eyes and hair slowly crept back to his normal dull silver.

"All right," Talon said with a slight smile, showing he was trying hard to stay relaxed, "calm enough for you?"

"It's enough for right now," Max said, obviously not buying it "so let's put our heads together and come up with a plan."

**Next Chapter: ****The Flocks attempt to break in to the place they've all broken out of.****  
**


	16. OPERATION: RESCUE TERRA

**This Chapter:**** The Flocks arrive at the School, ready to try and rescue Terra! But something unexpected occurs when looking the place over! Read and Review please! Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories, they are awesome, as is the person who writes them!**

Talon

Half an hour later, we were still in the planning for our big rescue mission. After the long, complicated brainstorming session, the plan we came up with was simple; break in, get Terra, and bust out before anyone was wiser. The problems would be as follows: Erasers, Hunters, and the guns they would probably be using.

"So how are we going to get in," Max asked, "any ideas?"

"Well, if they haven't changed the security codes," Demi offered, "we should be able to get in undetected through the front door, which leads straight to the labs. If not, we can use the tunnel that leads to the main complex from the training grounds."

"Good enough for me," Max said, "let's get going then!"

In less than twenty minutes we were airborne, heading to the place none of us wanted to go to ever again. While airborne, I had a chance to talk privately with Max.

"Why are you helping us out?" I asked, "Especially since I'm such a big threat."

"Well, someone once said 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', so, we're helping you because your lives have been screwed up too, by the same people. And also because our flocks get along so well, we're practically family. And as long as you keep a level head about it, anger can help a lot in a fight."

I then realized Max and the Old Flock didn't need an ulterior reason to help, they wanted Terra back with us as much as the rest of us did. Terra had used that special gift she unknowingly has that makes her fast friends with everyone she meets, something I knew the scientists could never have given her.

I would have liked to talk to Max more, but our final destination came into view. The five story white column kind of gave it away completely. I had to force myself to not subconsciously grit my teeth at the sight of that cess-pit of a building.

We landed in a clearing near the edge of the forest that surrounded the School, but still very far away. Max squinted and held her hand up to her forehead to block out the afternoon sun.

"Talon," Max said, "can you tell whether or not we can get in the front door?"

"Are you kidding me?" I answered with a cocky smile, "I can see that the scientist on the roof needs to trim his fingernails."

While that was an exaggeration, I did have the best vision out of everyone there. And while we had landed just beyond the maximum range of everyone else's raptor vision, we were still well within mine. After I flew up and landed on top of a nearby tree, I focused my incredibly powerful vision on the compound.

After looking, I saw that the School had completely re-done the security system since we had escaped, the front door had a new keypad, undoubtedly coupled with a new password, and our back-up plan, the tunnel from the training ground, was completely sealed off with concrete.

"I can see why you left," Max said jokingly, apparently looking the place over herself, "I mean, these people have no style. Colorless buildings to devoid you of hope is so last year."

Everyone laughed. I glided down from the treetop to tell everyone the bad news.

"How do we know where to begin?" Angel asked in her cute little voice before I could even say a word, "Talon saw the door with a new password, and the tunnel is sealed off."

"Wait a minute," I said, "how did you know that I-"

"She read your mind," Max sighed, "happens all the time, just leave it be. Right now though, we need to come up with a way to get in that doesn't involve explosives, _Iggy!_"

"Aw man," Iggy whined, "but explosions are so cool!"

"Cool, yes." Max answered, "Silent, stealthy, and concealable, No."

"Touche'" Iggy said, admitting defeat.

"C'mon, let's get back to the matter at hand." Max ordered sternly, "We need a way to get in and out of the School without being detected."

Before anyone could even pause to think, I had come up with an idea that I was sure would work.

"I know where one of the top scientists lives," I blurted in excitement, "if we persuade him or have Angel read his mind, I'm sure we can figure out the new password, and find out where Terra is."

Everyone stared at me like I had grown a third eye or something. I quickly did a check to make sure I hadn't grown one. Man, that's pathetic, as a teenage guy, I should be worried about acne, and there I was, worried that I could be sprouting extra eyes. What is the world coming to?

"That's actually a good idea Talon." Bree, sounding astonished.

"And why does that surprise anyone?" I said accusingly.

"Oh, nothing, Taly. Don't worry your pink-colored head over it."

If it was one thing that girl loved teasing me about, it was the 'hair-change-by-emotion' ability I had. My flock mates snickered as I got Bree into a head-lock. I was about to start messing up her "perfectly styled hair", when Angel interrupted us.

"Wait a seconf. Wait….Something's coming out—" she started, then stopped as her eyes widened in shock.

I looked over there too….and the acid in my gut got one step closer to giving me an ulcer. Not only was there Father alive and looking healthier than ever, which ended that somewhat satisfied feeling I had of killing him, but what he was walking outside on a leash made me clench my jaw so tight it ached.

Everyone in the Neo-Flock realized what I was getting upset about, while Max's flock was piecing it together quickly. Father was dragging a wolf on that leash, and not just any wolf. This wolf's fur was probably the color of peaches, with all the wounds and dried blood caked into it, it was hard to tell.

But that wasn't what I was looking at, it was the wolf's _eyes and wings_ that grabbed my attention. One of its eyes was a tawny gold, the other like opal, a lot of colors blended together beautifully. It's wings were a dark gray on top with a lighter gray on the bottom. _They were Terra's eyes and wings! __**The wolf was Terra!**_

Father was dragging the love of my life on a leash! After he had probably tortured her, and had her beat half to death multiple times.

He had gone too far this time, that bastard. I wasn't about to let him get away with this. A tiny voice in the back of my mind tried to get me to remember what Max had told me about staying calm, but I wasn't going to listen to reason right now.

Father had hurt Terra and my family one too many times. I was going to kill him if it was the last thing I'd do…and _anybody_ who tried to stop me would join him.

Bree

Even though Talon's eyesight may be way beyond what us other birdkid's was, Everyone was able to pick out Father and Wolf-Terra walking alongside the pale white walls. I knew that Talon would explode at this, so as soon as I saw Talon's jaw clench, I started to pull everyone away from him ASAP, because I did NOT want anybody to be near Talon when he explodes into Rage.

Talon's breathing became harsh through clenched teeth, and his hair turned that bloody shade of red. Worst of all, I could see the whites of his eyes going black, and the red in them turned pale yellow.

I was scared when I saw his hands actually _bleeding _from how tight he was clutching his fist. I knew that if someone didn't do something soon, Talon might fly in and start killing everyone in blind rage and get us all killed, or worse, he might accidentally mistake one of us as an enemy and kill us.

While I was thinking of a plan to get him to calm down, Max, from out of nowhere, threw a flying sidekick at Talon's head that knocked him across the clearing . I was already thinking that was a really bad idea, even if you knew what you were doing, which I wasn't sure Max was.

Any doubt that Talon was going to go berserk had vanished now, so a fight between Max and Talon was inevitable. While Talon did know martial arts and pure rage was on his side, Max was a much more experienced fighter who knew more about brawling than Talon does.

The fight started when Talon leapt at Max while pulling back his arm for a punch, but Max just threw a right-straight punch into Talon's gut; making him double over and hurl on the ground.

Growling as he stood up, Talon positioned himself in some odd stance. I knew what it was, because I had sparred against it enough times to recognize it. Though I had fought that stance many times, that wasn't the main reason I remembered it. I remembered it mainly because every time he took that stance, I could never hit him. Max ignored the weird look of Talon's stance and jumped towards him, aiming a powerful kick to where she just punched his gut, but just before the kick could hit, Talon twisted his torso while grabbing Max's leg, and in one smooth blur of motion had thrown her.

As Max hit an old oak tree, all of us on the sidelines winced, because she hit spine-first, and her back arched in pain while her back spasmed.

Now Max was starting to get mad too. She bounced up and threw a flurry of kicks and punches at Talon. While Max could move faster than Talon on the ground, she wasn't hitting Talon at all. To me it just looked like she was punching air, and it looked very infuriating.

Max finally snapped and threw a full-power right hook at Talon's jaw. Everyone saw the punch connect, but Talon pivoted on his left foot and used the momentum from the punch to bring his right leg around to deliver an earth-shattering kick to Max's side, sending her flying. It looked like Talon had won when he suddenly collapsed.

"Okay Max, I have him now," Angel said in her little angelic voice.

"Thank you Angel," Max wheezed out. "Man, that boy can fight, if I hadn't seen that last kick coming, I might be nursing more than a sore back and stomach."

Talon was still on the ground, apparently not able to move his body.

"I asked Angel to take control of your mind while we fought, to make sure we could have a peaceful chat." Max explained, and then spit some blood on the ground. "Listen Talon, we all know you like Terra, and you want revenge on that idiot for doing who-knows-what to her, but if you go in there full of rage and stop caring about your own life; I _will stop you_. Now, I want you to stand up, and help us come up with a way to put **your **plan into action, k?"

Angel released her mind control and he shakily stood up. His hair and eyes almost completely turning his baseline silver sheen.

"I get it," he said/growled.

"Alrighty then, let's put our genetically enhanced minds to the task of breaking Terra out of this place," Max said "Talon, you said you know where one of the top scientists live, so we'll have you go in alone after Iggy disables the security system and cuts the phone lines. The rest of us will watch the exits so he can't get away."

"Perfect for me, because I have been dying to have a little talk with my old friend James," Talon said with an evil look I _really_ didn't like.

**Next Chapter:**** James the Scientist gets a visit from Talon. And Talon is MAD!**


	17. James the Scientist Gets a Visit

**This Chapter:**** Talon's old whitecoat buddy James gets a visit…though I don't think Talon's stopping by for tea and biscuits. Then the Flocks attempt the break-in. What's gonna happen? Read on and find out! ^_^ Please read and review. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

James the Scientist

I was coming back from a long day at the School. Half of our "Most Successful Experiments" kicked the bucket today; apparently, they didn't want to be experiments anymore and committed suicide.

I missed the good old days when we could do experiments on those "Neo-Flock" freaks when they were asleep, and then wipe their memories when the experiments were over.

I took off my lab coat and threw it across the chair at my desk. I feel a chill run down my back and I feel like I'm being watched.

"Who's there!" I yell.

As I looked down the pitch-black hallway, I hear footsteps coming towards me. Adrenaline pumping, I looked around the room for something to defend myself with. A sudden hand on my shoulder made me freeze instantly.

"Come on James, don't tell me you forgot I'm the stealthiest experiment you made." said a voice I never wanted to hear again.

I knew, at that very moment, I was as good as dead. I turned my head slowly and started to pray that he wasn't here to kill me in revenge. I immediately wanted to turn away, but his demonic stare held my eyes and head exactly where he wanted them to.

"Now James, let's have a little talk," He said with a cold, cruel voice, "about the School's new security system codes. Being a top scientist of theirs, surely you know them."

Then I understood why he had come back, he wanted to rescue Terra. Knowing I probably wasn't going to survive that encounter, I didn't want to give the freak any satisfaction.

"If you came for Terra," I said, my voice a bit more shaky than I would have liked it, "she's long gone by now buddy, heck, I think she's probably being killed as we speak."

Talon's grip on my shoulder tightened to the point where I was ready to yell in pain, but I held it in to try and save some face.

"Don't lie to me James," Talon whispered, his voice like ice. "I know she's still alive, so don't mess with me."

I finally gathered up the courage to try make a run for it, and got out of my chair to escape but as I passed by Talon, all the strength left my body and I collapsed to the floor. I tried to move everything but found I could only talk.

"What the heck did you just do to me, you freak?" I yelled.

"Just a temporary nerve paralysis, it should wear off in about fifteen minutes. You know, you probably shouldn't have taught us how to fight so well." He said in a happier, but still evil voice, "I'm going to give you a choice now James. You can either tell me the security codes and be the only survivor of the School when I'm through with it, or, I can give the slowest and most painful death you could possibly imagine, your choice, I will give you two minutes to decide."

I laid there on the floor and came to an immediate decision, Forget the School, I wanted to live. I relayed the codes to Talon who wrote them down on a sheet of paper.

"Just to let you know," he said as he opened the front door, "If these are the wrong codes, I'm going to take my time tearing you apart."

After twenty minutes, I was finally able to move normally. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed in the School's security force number.

"The Neo-Flock has returned, repeat, the Neo-Flock has returned to attempt a rescue of Terra. ETA: ten minutes. Have security head them off." I said, then abruptly hung up and slumped on my couch

I knew I wasn't going to make it out of the compound alive if I tried to make a run for it now, the problem was deciding who was more likely to kill me; Talon, or our newly improved Hunters. At that moment…I wished it would have been the latter

Max

"Talon, I have to say," I started, "That performance back there deserved an Oscar."

"I try," he said with a sense of pride in it.

Personally, I was just glad he seemed to have blown off a lot of steam with James, losing the "loose cannon" feel I had earlier.

"At least he's modest too," Bree said sarcastically, making Talon start to sputter about other random things.

Juli shushed him, motioning for me to continue.

"Seriously though," I continued, laughing "you scared that guy so bad I think he wet himself. Some of the time I thought you were seriously about to kill him."

"Well, I wasn't, so you don't have to worry about it." He said.

I could tell he lied.

We were flying at high altitude surveying the area, trying to find the entrance of least butt-kicking necessary, the front door.

"uh, guys," Nudge said in a worried voice, "quick riddle for you, what has orange fur with black stripes, has wings, and travels in packs of ten or more?"

"I don't know Nudge, what is it?" I answered, inwardly groaning about the possibility of having to fight what she saw.

"I don't know either, but they're coming at us really fast." Sure enough, there were 20 or so teenage girls morphing into really big furry tiger-girls flying towards us really fast.

"Does anyone have any clue as to what those things are?" I asked while preparing for a fight.

"They're called Hunters," Talon informed us, "they are an eventual replacement for the Erasers, part human, part tiger, and now apparently part bird. They are quite deadly, being part tiger, they have the claws, agility, and strength of a tiger. My advice, let's make a run for the School and lock them out."

Everyone else in both flocks nodded in silent unison at the hastily constructed plan.

"All right, here's the plan!" I yelled, "We fight for a while, then on my signal, drop who you're fighting and dive bomb towards the front door. Everyone got it?"

Every one gave a loud "Yes" in response. Just before the Hunters hit us, Talon gave an evil grin,

"This is gonna be fun!" he said.

I worried about that guy.

Talon

As the fight with the Hunter's started, I realized that none of the Neo-Flock had any knowledge of mid-air combat skills. But after a little bit of getting used to the up-down motion of our flapping, we all found that mid-air combat came naturally to us.

I found that by flapping at the last second, I could surprise the Hunters long enough for me to paralyze them and watch them drop like stones on the ground below. Suddenly, I heard Max yell "NOW!"

Immediately, all of us bird-kids folded our wings against our backs and streaked towards the ground like bullets. We reached the ground and did a running landing at the front entrance. I was able to pull off an almost perfect landing that landed me directly in front of the door's keypad.

"Talon, the security codes," Max asked quickly, "put them in, quick!"

I typed the codes into the keypad and it gave out a "beep" followed by a lot of clicks and squeaks of metal. We pushed the large metal doors open and rushed inside.

Iggy planted a small explosive on the keypad, which exploded the moment we all got clear of the doors. The explosion caused the School's security system to kick in and seal the doorway with a two-foot thick slab of steel.

"Well that was fun, can we do it again?" Fang asked sarcastically.

"I don't think so," Angel said in a worried voice.

"What is it Angel?" Max asked.

"Where do we go from here," she asked, "it splits into three corridors."

It was true, the main room we had entered through had three pathways leading towards the interior. It was completely different from the last time I had seen it.

"It would seem like they did some redecorating while we were away," Demi said, sounding sarcastically impressed.

"Guys," Nudge said, "I don't like the idea of us splitting up; we have no idea what to expect in there. We should turn back now while we still can."

"If we leave now, they will beef up security and make it next to impossible to get back in a second time." I said, maybe a little more harshly than I meant to, "Besides, just think if it was Max in Terra's position, wouldn't you do anything to get her back?"

She nodded her head and agreed to finish what we started.

"Okay, since there're twelve of us, we'll divide up into three groups of four; with at least one member of the Neo-Flock in each of them," Max started, "Group leaders are as follows: Me, Talon, and Fang. I'll take Nudge, Zell, and Lexis with me; Talon will have Gazzy, Demi, and Iggy; And Fang will take Bree, Juli, and Angel."

It was obvious when she started dividing us up that the amount of experience she had in the field of leadership outclassed the Neo-Flock's many times over. I knew Terra was a great leader, but Max had a certain flair for being a leader that Terra didn't.

When the groups had finished gathering and assigning jobs as part of that group, we chose what path we would take; My group took the right path, Max's group took the left path, and Juli's group took the center path. When we last saw the other groups, I had a bad feeling right at the back of my mind telling me that maybe we should have turned back. I just hoped that the bad feeling wasn't right, but how often had _that_ happened?

**Next Chapter:**** Corridors of Doom!**


	18. Corridors of Doom

**This Chapter:**** Corridors of Doom! The groups face the horrors of the paths they chose. And what awaits them at the end of their trip? Please read and review. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

Max

As my group walked down the corridor, it seemed to me like it was getting smaller and smaller as we walked on. I kept telling myself not to panic, that it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Finally, it got to the point where the claustrophobic me had to ask someone.

"Is it just me," I asked no one in particular, hoping that it was just my imagination, "or has this hallway gotten a lot smaller than when we came in?"

"You know what, you're right, it HAS gotten smaller, look, I can touch the sides with my hands now." Nudge said.

That was bad; and as soon as I thought that, the walls and ceiling started moving faster towards their most likely goal of squishing us like bugs. Now it was time to panic, I yelled "RUN" and started to make a run for it. We sprinted as fast as we could towards the other end. Just when I was starting to lose hope of getting out, I saw the light that signaled the exit of the tunnel.

Let me tell you something, we were so close to being the newest flavor of pancake, that Zell's hair got caught in the closing gap between the walls. In the end, we had to cut Zell's hair with my pocketknife to get her free. Personally, I thought her hair looked cute shorter.

It turned out that the death-trap hallway led to a white hallway. As we made our way through, I felt worried for the other two groups, wondering if their passageways were booby-trapped too. Well, I was worried for everyone else until my group made a left turn…. Into a squad of four Hunters with SMG's pointed right at us. Then I was back to worrying about myself.

"Don't try to run, we have been ordered to immediately shoot any who resist," one of the hunters said in an emotionless voice.

At first I thought they were just blowing smoke to keep us from running, so I tried to signal Nudge to get ready to fight, until one of them saw me signaling and shot my left thigh. Okay, I had been clipped with shotgun shots before, but those just grazed my wing; this was a direct shot, to my LEG!

I have some advice that should help you a lot in your life, avoid getting shot, it hurts a lot, and you could die.

When my group saw I had been shot, they immediately surrendered. As we were being led away, I prayed that Angel was listening in on my thoughts and would tell the others, but that would have been too easy right?

Juli

I heard Angel gasp and saw tears start forming in her eyes.

"Max and her group have been captured by Hunters." She gasped out between tears.

"That's impossible," Fang said, "She's probably beating the stuffing out of them right now."

"Not when they've shot her in the leg right after she'd just escaped from her trap-rigged passageway." Angel said in a tone that was devoid of all hope.

"They did WHAT to her?" Fang growled.

For the sake of Angel's mind-set, I covered her ears to avoid her hearing what he said next. He was acting a lot like Talon over what they had done to Terra. I started thinking that if their passageway was rigged, was ours?

I was thinking it had been getting warmer in our hallway. At first I thought that it was just my imagination, until I reached out and burned my hand on the wall when I touched it. Okay, the metal walls were heating up, meaning we had a limited amount of time before we were roasted marshmallows.

"Make for the exit, don't stop for anything unless someone falls, then pick them up and keep running." I yelled as I started running myself.

How little time we had was becoming painfully aware as my shoe's soles began to melt and the bottoms of my feet began to get singed. We were in the final stretch when Bree's melted shoe stuck to the floor and made her fall on her right arm, right on the red hot floor. Her scream of pain was horrifying.

I was about to stop and help when Fang bent down, slung her over his back, and kept running, so I did the same. When we finally reached the exit, I had lost all feeling in my burned feet, and everyone in my group was drenched in sweat. Fang carefully laid Bree on the ground to inspect the burns on her right arm.

I am in no way a medical expert, but it looked bad; the entire stretch of her forearm down to the wrist was bright red and blistered. Fang was wearing an extra T-shirt, which he took off, tore into strips, soaked in water from his water bottle, and wrapped Bree's burns with them.

"Thank you," I said, sincerely thankful for his act of kindness.

"No problem," he said in his flat voice.

As we stood there, collecting our thoughts and our breaths, I began to think that we were forgetting something in our thankfulness for being alive.

"Angel, what happened to Max's group again?" I asked.

"They got captured by-" she started before she was interrupted by a squad of Hunters who wasted no time in forcing us into surrender.

While being led away, I prayed that they wouldn't get Talon's group; or worse, tell Talon what they did to his friends, then I would start praying for them.

Talon

That feeling of dread came back again, making me pause in our extremely dark hallway we had entered. Iggy almost kept going, making Gazzy panic and grab onto his shirt.

"We've stopped, don't keep going!" he cried out, looking scared.

I could tell that all of the Old Flock had claustrophobia like us, and the hallway being dark as well as small probably wasn't helping. Iggy and I had no problem being in the almost pitch-black darkness, but Gazzy was terrified. I saw the end of the tunnel and smiled.

"Almost there." I said assuredly, "Only about a hundred feet. Let's hurry."

My bad feeling worsened as I nodded and helped Iggy guide Gazzy along—because he really had no clue what was going on at the moment other than what he could hear. Something in the back of my head was telling me that I should run back to the door and fly away as fast as possible, but I chose to ignore it as we kept walking. When we reached the end of the tunnel, we found ourselves in a large arena with a dirt floor. Immediately I knew I should stop ignoring the little voice in the back of my head so often. The arena was a large circle, at least half the size of a football field

There was a sudden "whoosh" of wind and a burst of blinding light and in that second, everyone but me was picked up and put with the others. Armed Hunters surrounded them and I wondered why no one had seemed to put up a fight since we outnumbered them. Then I saw Max's leg wrapped in a bloody t-shirt and Bree's bandaged arm.

They had been clever, separating us and making sure that nobody would want to resist. But I wondered why I had been separated from them. They know I fight better alone. A crackling noise went across the arena and Father's voice came through the speakers.

"Oh Talon!" he said in a smug voice, "So good to see you again, and oh, you brought company, how nice."

"Shut up Father," I snarled back in annoyance, "Shouldn't you be dead? I'm pretty sure I killed you already."

"Don't you worry about me when it's you who should be worrying." He said in a voice that told me that I was about to be in DEEP trouble.

I spun around to see a steel door slowly rise, revealing a pack of twelve wolves, each around four feet off the ground at the shoulder and about six and a half feet from nose to tail, with Terra leading them.

"_Please don't make me fight her." _I inwardly moaned.

The lead wolf (AKA Terra) howled at the rest of the wolves, and they stopped and gathered by the Hunters.

"Alright Talon," Father said in a mocking voice before the system crackled out, "let's see how you deal with our newest and best creation; Your old companion. Enjoy~"

I knew he was behind the walls of the dome somewhere, watching this sick scenario, but I wasn't worried about that—hell, I was more worried about losing my head, the way Terra leapt at me.

I spent the next couple of minutes attempting to dodge Terra's lunges and claw attacks while finding a way to not kill her—getting badly cut and scratched in the process.

"_Easy, Talon," _Angel's voice cooed in my head,_ "Relax; trust your instincts. The cat in you knows how to deal with dogs._"

"_Angel!_" I yelled in my head, "_This is NOT the time for a pep-talk!_"

I know that seemed a little harsh, but I was in a life or death situation, for crying out loud!

Moments later, when Terra came in for another lunge with wings outstretched and maw agape with those bloody teeth 'smiling' at me, I moved sideways and grabbed her around the collar, quickly weaving my fingers within the spikes, and then pulled back on it. Hard.

Terra gave a choked yelp and got thrown backwards, which was good. The thing was I hadn't realized how much force I used and I got pulled along for the short flight. I fell to the floor, and before I could get back up, Terra leapt on top of me.

She snarled, moved to pin my arms down with her front claws and her teeth oh-so-very close to my neck. The other wolves were making a semi-circle around us and the others, still not attacking; they were waiting on Terra's command.

"T-Terra, please…" I pleaded with the wolf about to kill me.

I laid there and waited for the pain of those fangs piercing my neck, when suddenly, Terra's voice in my head made me almost jump into her waiting jaws.

"_Talon silly, just play along—" _she said cheerfully,"_it's not going to be that bad. Trust me, okay?"_

_ "How can I trust you?" _I countered back mentally,_ "You might be controlled by Father."_

She laughed in her head.

"_Talon, really…you know that it's me." _she said,_ "I carried you down from the roof the night after we got out of the infirmary, you became emo, we got our butts kicked by Max's flock. And either way, if I was under Father's control, wouldn't I have already killed you by now?" _.

The telepathic giant wolf with her jaws inches away from my throat had a very good point. I was filled with joy that Terra wasn't going to kill me, but then reality came back and slapped me in my face.

_ "Alright you're on our side, but what are we going to do about the current situation?" _I asked,_ "Max and Bree are injured, Father is expecting you to kill me, and there're about thirty Hunters with guns pointed at everyone else in the Flocks! Don't even forget about your wolf pack which is also there ready to sink their teeth into us!"_

If wolves can't smile, Terra managed to pull off the closest equivalent.

_ "Okay, give me a minute and I'll show you what we'll do. And by the way, those wolves are my friends, so don't insult them." _

Terra lifted her head from its position on my neck, moved it towards the sky, and howled. The other wolves howled in approval, and suddenly…they disappeared. Like…out of thin air they darted—from my position on the floor I only saw blurs as Hunters were taken down left and right, with what appeared to be bite and scratch marks on their necks.

_ This is crazy!_ I thought to Terra, who was transforming back.

Her arms and legs were covered with very deep scratches and burn marks that seemed to be healing back into her perfect skin, but her neck…it was the worst. Made bloody by that collar from the spikes that line the inside of the collar where it had almost completely shredded the skin on her neck.

I could tell that Terra had been severely tortured for the days she had been there. There was something different about the look in her eye now, it looked sad and depressed, like someone who had given up. I felt acid burning multiple new holes in my stomach when I thought about what Father had done to her.

That infernal collar hung loose on her neck now, and she managed to unhook it and slip it off her neck with shaky hands. I only then noticed that Terra was wearing some sort of special skintight outfit that looked like a leotard that had shorts and short sleeves added.

That was a relief because I had a feeling what I couldn't see of her was just as marred as what I could see, and I didn't ever want to see that.

Our flock nearly mauled Terra in a hug. Even amid the battle occurring we were still happy to have her. As the other wolves got back into their grouping the room was filled with screams of "TERRA!" and "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?"

I hung back silently, with Bree at my side.

"So uh…" I murmured, "I'm glad she's okay."

Without looking at me, Bree slapped me upside the head.

"Go get your girl you idiot." She murmured to me as she ran towards the group and pulled Lexis and Zell off of Terra so I had a clear path to her.

I slowly walked over to Terra. We looked into each other's eyes, trying to find the words to say, when I grabbed her up in the biggest hug I could possibly give.

"_I'm so happy you're alive, I don't know how I would survive without you." _I thought to her.

She didn't say anything, so her telepathy must only work while in wolf-form, but she returned my hug with interest. Somehow, Bree had managed to organize everyone in both flocks to say "aaaaaaaaah, isn't that sweet!" simultaneously- making this quite possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life.

**Next Chapter:**** Neo-Flock strikes back!**


	19. NeoFlock Fights Back

**This Chapter: ****Neo-Flock FIGHTS BACK BABY! Kicking butt old-school! Then an important decision arises. Please read and review. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

Terra

Unfortunately for us, Father interrupted the happy/extremely embarrassing moment with that stupid speaker.

"You insolent freaks, what are you celebrating about?" He said in a voice that told us the fight wasn't even close to done, "You're still stuck in here unless I let you out. So now you'll just keep fighting and fighting until you've exhausted yourselves, and I can collect you at my leisure."

Suddenly, at least two hundred Hunters flooded the arena, though thankfully, this batch was unarmed. I had a plan already cooked up in my genetically enhanced head, and cocked a grin at Talon.

"Hey guys. I'll go after Father to get the key that can get us out of here," I said. Can you guys handle the Hunters?"

The others were not amused at the prospect of taking on a horde of Hunters.

"WHAT? Are you crazy Terra?" Talon yelled in disbelief. "It's like a thousand to twelve."

"Make that a thousand to twenty-two." I said with a grin. With a small bark from myself-though it really sounded like I coughed—the wolves that I had befriended gathered around us and got ready to fight.

"Hey Max," Talon asked with an angry look on his face, "Since we rescued Terra and now we're fighting for our lives, can I cut loose and go crazy?"

I didn't know at the time about how close Talon had been to possibly killing Max or James the Scientist, so I just assumed he was just itching for a fight. I immediately prayed that Max wasn't going to say "yes". Poor Hunters if she did.

"Not if I beat you to it." Max said .

Oh well, I prayed, didn't I?

"Good." Talon said in his demonic voice.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?" Max said.

With that, I took off from the ground to fly to the secret balcony that Father built to observe his best creations killing each other. I found the secret door and walked in as quietly as I could. I spotted Father's chair and made my way over to torture him until he gave us the key. But as I spun his chair to face me, I only saw the key we needed with a note attached that read in his neat script,

"Dear Terra, if you're reading this, you have overcome the mind control drugs and are now fighting my Hunters for your own lives. Fortunately for me though, I was smart enough to watch this spectacle from afar, as to not put me in any danger. You have aced this test I set up perfectly; I look forward to the next one you will hopefully pass with flying colors. See you soon, Father."

As I finished reading the note, my mood changed. Now I was ROYALLY PISSED! I had lost count of how many reasons I had for killing Father on site the next time I saw him, yet he continued to give me things to add to my list.

I looked over the broken-windowed balcony to see if the battle below needed yours truly to step in. Apparently, letting Talon go crazy was what was winning the battle; he was dropping Hunters left and right and they couldn't get a mark on him. I also saw Zell slipping on some sort of bracelet before something shot out of her hands that looked and awful lot like _lightning_! She took out seven Hunters at once, but it looked like she was out of power. I would have to ask her about her new skill.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Hunter connect a very hard punch to Talon's face, which dropped him to the ground and left him screaming in pain.

"_That's weird…"_ I thought to myself, "_Why did that blow hit when none of the others could?_"

Then it got worse; Talon wasn't getting up. He was curled up on the ground being kicked by the Hunter. I knew it was time for me to jump into action, so I took a running leap off the balcony and dove for Talon. I poured on the speed as much as I could, desperate to get to Talon.

There were only six other Hunters left, and they were all losing, so I didn't worry about anybody else in the Flocks. I tackled the Hunter's chest head-on in mid air as hard as I possibly could, and I heard her spine snap from the force of the impact. After making sure that the Hunter was out of commission, I bent down to check on Talon, who was still curled up on the ground.

"Talon, are you alright?" I asked as I put my hand on his shoulder to roll him over.

The sudden scream of pain from Talon made my hand jerk back in surprise. Tears started forming when I started freaking out about what the School might have done to him.

"Terra. I haven't had the chance to tell you," Max explained as she limped over to the scene, "but Talon was injected with a stimulant and is suffering from 'nerve attacks', any and all physical contact and stimuli to his senses will be agonizing for him."

Stimulant? "Nerve attacks"? I tried wrapping my head around all of it, but I couldn't. After nearly hyperventilating, I decided to ask what came into my head first.

"How many attacks has he had?" I asked.

"So far, this is his second one," Demi filled in while walking over from his finished battle, "and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks just as painful as the first."

Now everyone in both flocks had gathered to plan what to do next. Everyone filled me in on the specifics of Talon's condition, and I felt overwhelmed with sadness. But I had to put that aside until we were able to escape. Unfortunately, everyone knew that Talon couldn't even be touched, let alone _moved_.

"We have to move him though," Juli said truthfully, "If we stay here much longer, we risk being captured or killed."

We heard Talon mumbling something, so we all shut up to hear what he had to say.

"I'm fine," He said weakly through strained teeth, "it's not as bad as the last time, but I can't fly on my own, someone has to help me."

It was obvious that he was lying about the pain, but at the time, we had no choice, and Talon knew that. Demi agreed to fly with Talon, so then all we needed was an exit

"So, any ideas as to how to get out of here?" Iggy asked.

"Actually, I do," Nudge said, "The ceiling's made of safety glass, so all we have to do is break it."

"That would be a good idea if any of us could break safety glass with our bare hands." Fang said.

"I could try to shatter it like the lightbulb back at the house." Zell offered.

"Zell, honey," Juli said, kind and caring, masking her true fear, "let's find another way, because you don't have any real control over that electric power of yours, and you wouldn't want to fry any of us, would you?"

"No." Zell said sadly, "I just really wanted to make it shatter."

"Well, if you have some other power that lets you break glass, please use it now." Max groaned, "because my leg is burning in pain right now."

"Why break glass," I asked, fishing the key from Father's office from my pocket, "when we can just walk out the front door."

"Way to go Terra!" Gazzy yelled, punching the air for emphasis.

"Alright, let's get out of here before something else goes wrong." Max yelled, though with the pain in her leg, it came out in a half-groan.

With that, I gathered Talon into my arms and flapped my wings as hard as I could to take off. As we flew away, I congratulated my Flock on their stunning achievement; they had broken into the School, rescued me, kicked butt, and all gotten out of there relatively intact.

Now that we were rid of the School problem, we had a more pressing one at hand. We had on our hands: a burned Bree, a shot Max, and an incapacitated Talon. We needed to find a place to heal, and fast.

"Anybody got any ideas on where to go?" I asked, hoping that someone would have a plan.

"Yes," Fang said, "but I need a computer."

"Why in the world do you need that?" I yelled.

"Because my blog can get a message that we need help to the people who read it." He said calmly.

"And how many people read your blog?" I snapped angrily, "Maybe twenty to thirty people? How is that going to help!"

"No, but maybe one or two of my **THIRTY-TWO MILLION **readers might be able to lend us a helping hand." He replied with that quirky smile, knowing he just schooled me big time.

"I think that thirty-two million potential helpers might be a little bit useful." Lexis said with a giggle.

I just flew on silently, nursing my pride for a minute. Juli stopped mid-flight, hovering and looking down towards a building that seemed abandoned, covered by leaves and almost hidden in the treetops.

"Juli," I asked hesitantly, "Is something wrong?" Without any warning or reply Juli was nose-diving for the closest broken window of the building.

"Something tells me that things are about to get a lot weirder around here." Talon grunted through his teeth, "And that little voice at the back of my head isn't usually wrong."

"You have a voice in your head too?" Max said sarcastically, "Join the club, we have tee-shirts."

Juli

I know it might just have been the exhaustion making me delusional, but I swore that I heard something like a puppy whining in the building below us. Without much thinking, I was diving into the building looking for the source of the sound. I heard the others follow me, but I ignored them.

After about two minutes, I found a wolf cub shivering in the corner. I don't like to boast, but I have a way with animals. They all seem to trust me more than normal people. I scooped up the shivering puppy in my arms and flew back up to meet everyone, who were staring at me as if to ask what the heck I was doing.

"I heard this little guy whining, so I went down to help it." I explained.

Then everyone looked at the little guy in my arms, they all melted into affectionate "aaaah's" and "how cutes." What shocked everyone in my flock into silence was when the little guy talked back!

"Hey, for your information," The wolf cub said in a whiny voice, "I am eight years old, so I am not little."

"Wait," Max said, looking shell-shocked, "Ari? Is that you?"

"No Max," the cub said, "I'm the Hunch-back of Notre Dame; of course it's me."

"What happened to you?" Max retorted in quick bursts, holding her head, "How are you even alive? Can someone give me some Tylenol for this headache please!"

"Max, what are you talking about?" I asked, slightly confused by the brown-pelted, talking wolf pup nestled in my arms.

"This…though I can't believe it… is my half-brother, Ari." Max explained, "He's _supposed_ to be eight years old and has died twice. He was turned into an Eraser when he was three, and he had been trying to kill me until he found out his expiration date."

"Wait a minute," Terra asked with a coy smile, "You're related to a wolf?"

This made everybody snicker at Max, making her blush a little.

"No," Max said hurriedly, "He used to be human, well, an Eraser, but he's a talking wolf cub now."

"Hello, I'm right here," Ari barked, a hint of irritation in his voice. "Don't talk like I'm not even around."

I nuzzled the back of his fur with a soft sigh, feeling him stiffen, then relax in my arms. He was such a **cute **puppy! I don't know why anyone would leave him out here to die.

His eyes were closed and I bet if he had been a cat he would have been purring, like Talon did when he was content with a head pat from his darling Terra. But I digress.

"You poor thing…were you in there the entire time?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Yea, pretty much. That was one of the School's older locations before it was abandoned for the new place where you new guys were created." Ari explained, pointing to the Neo-Flock "I escaped a few days ago from the new School, and had to hide somewhere."

"But how are you even alive Ari?" Max almost screamed, "All of us were at the funeral where they buried your body!"

"Apparently," Ari said, "the whitecoats have a machine that can perfectly sequence a person's consciousness, duplicate it, and place it inside a embryo. So, I'm not the actual Ari, but I'm not a clone either, obviously. To put it simply, the whitecoats said I was a perfect 'reflection' of the original Ari."

"Well," Max sighed, "you're enough of Ari for me. Come here you!"

With that, she limped over to me, grabbed Ari from my arms and gave him a big hug, but Ari didn't really want a part of it. Soon, Ari was complaining about wanting to be with me, so Max handed him over.

"…Say…didn't you guys have a mutt too?" Ari said after regaining his composure. "What was his name…Total?"

Angel freaked out, looking around her as if she hadn't noticed something wasn't there. A "Humph!" caught my attention, and I turned with Ari in my arms as a small black dog wandered in on our group from behind Fang, looking annoyed.

"I'm not a mutt. I'm a dog with wings, which means I'm better than you." Total retorted, trotting over to Max who picked him up to hush him.

I felt Ari's hackles raised and shushed him gently with soothing words, feeling him relax again. It was known that wolves were violent when angry, so I wanted to make sure that this puppy wasn't going to grow up to be one of the too violent ones.

"So…Where do we go next?" Bree asked, and we all quieted and looked to the leaders of the group—Max and Terra.

"We…we would need to talk on that." Terra replied, almost lost in her thoughts. Ari was squirming a little in my arms because he wanted to walk for a while, so I set him down, where he wandered to Terra and sat at her feet. She smiled weakly and sat down to pet him.

"We need to find food, shelter, and obviously someone who's good at medicine that won't plaster us all over the news." Max said, trying to ignore the fact that Terra was playing with a dog rather than making a plan.

"Why not a library?" Angel asked. "Libraries are safe places with computers. We could go there and search for the stuff we need."

"But where is there if we don't even know where in the world—" Bree's mouth was covered by Demi's hand as he pointed towards a sign that hung on the rusted perimeter fence.

Asheville, North Carolina

2 miles

"Why isn't it cold if we're up here in the mountains?" Lexis asked, figuring out where we were from her geography lessons the School gave us.

I looked around me at the green trees, their leaves thick and acorns aplenty.

"It's the summer. Nice weather for up north." I responded, turning and looking to Terra, "Now we need to get looking for that library." .

"You got Ari?" I asked.

She nodded, holding the pup protectively to her. I then noticed the state of clothing we were all in; ruined, cut, shambled.

"Well, I think we need to get some new clothes first…" I said slowly, thinking about how much clothes would cost for all seven of us.

Angel giggled innocently, reaching into her back pocket and producing four rectangular cards.

"We don't have to worry about money," she said sweetly, "these guys in the School "let" me borrow their credit cards. So if we buy things, we won't get in trouble!"

Max looked over at the little girl, a scolding look in her eyes. Angel hid behind Iggy, who looked around at everyone.

"So…Asheville here we come?" He asked questioningly. I took the credit cards from Angel and looked to Terra. She nodded in agreement.

"Asheville, here we come!

**Next Chapter:**** Mysterious Chat!**


	20. A Promise of Help

**This Chapter:**** A wardrobe change, a mysterious online chat, and a promise of help? Can this mysterious source be trusted? Please read and review. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

**Bree**

The city was big. H-U-G-E. Like…so many buildings! So many stores! We had never been able to explore towns or cities on our missions, so this was our first time in anything _close_ to public. Max had to spend a little time scolding us because we forgot to fold our wings in before walking around.

Fortunately, no one saw them, so we averted that crisis. After we all had our wings well hidden, we practically charged into a clothing shop and spent hours upon hours trying different clothes on.

Of course, because boys somehow know _exactly_ what they want to wear, they had picked out new complete outfits before us girls had even had a chance to try any on.

Demi got himself black cargos and a baggy navy-blue t-shirt. Basic Demi for you. He wore almost the same thing every day anyway, so I guess that helped cut down picking time.

Talon chose an outfit of washed-out black jeans and a white t-shirt with a black wolf on it. He usually picks something with a cat on it for himself—but maybe he picked a wolf because of Terra. I then saw him put on a black short-sleeved button-down shirt with small grey lines running vertically that gave him a "sophisticated but dangerous" look. He also picked out a camoflauge, hooded sweatshirt that had a hood big enough to hide all of his color-changing hair.

After he paid for his clothes and started heading out to meet Demi waiting outside, I saw his right arm spasm violently and probably painfully. The spasms stopped quickly, but I was worried about my little brother. Talon's latest nerve attack that started at the School was still going on, but he kept lying it was slowly getting better.

The only reason I hadn't freaked out and called him out for his lying was because at least he was still able to function somewhat. I trust Talon with my life, but I was really nervous about his lying, because this nerve attack was lasting longer than the first one by a full two hours.

But going back to clothes, I got myself a neon pink halter with a black, frilly, layered mini-skirt with some electric blue bangles for my wrists. Juli snagged herself a long, billowy shirt and a pair of normal jeans. She had originally picked out a beautiful sundress, but Max said no, due to practicality in our "on the run" situation; Juli was disappointed, but she still picked out an outfit that matched her perfectly.

Zell got a smaller version of Juli's shirt in a light orange hue with a pair of light-blue jeans, and Lexis had a blue-and-gold skirt combo, a blue shirt and a gold skirt-complete with leggings and a wraparound sash that she adored like who knows what.

Terra chose a denim mini-skirt with black leggings underneath. Her long-sleeved shirt was black with a gold trimming to match her eye. She got herself a plain, black silk choker for her neck to hide the marred skin that the spiked collar caused, and It looked like it would work well. A few haircuts and new sunglasses for Demi later, we were on our way to meet Max's flock at the library.

Well…we found them there, but not in the way we'd expect it. We found them on the computer farthest away from the doorway, but closest to the window. Once again, I shall simultaneously applaud and face-palm at how thorough Max and her flock are with security and escape.

They all had bewildered looks on their faces, which got me curious. Max must have heard the library doors open, because she turned to look at us, and quickly proceeded to signal us over to the computer quickly.

Terra

Max called us over when we entered, pointing at the computer screen. Nudge was just sitting there, looking confused. On the regular, desk-top monitor was Fang's blog, more specifically, his inbox for the blog. I was getting curious at the thought of what was being said on the message that would baffle all of them so much. I looked at the screen and only saw one message.

"Hello Fang, if you are reading this, let me tell you we know where you are at this exact moment in time, your current situation, and that I can offer proper first aid and shelter for all of you. We know who you are. We can help. We read your blog. We are active on wanting to help."

Now I was jerking my head around, looking for an ambush waiting to happen, when another message appeared.

"Don't worry, I'm not from the School, I'm on your side."

Fang started to type a message back.

"Prove it. Prove to me you're not on their side."

The mystery messenger didn't reply for a minute, which made me think he was coming up with a lie. But when the message did show up, I knew he had just taken the time to choose his words carefully.

Unknown: "I wish that everyone involved in Itex or the School would burn in hell a thousand times over for what they did to you and the Neo-Flock."

Fang: "How do you know about the Neo-Flock, they didn't even go into public areas, so there're no pictures of them."

Unknown: "I have some skill as a computer hacker, so for the past few months I've been tracking both Flock's situations from the School's databases. You'd be surprised how easy it was for me to get in."

While the online conversation was going on, Max and I were in a heated discussion of our own, over whether or not to trust this guy.

"We can't trust anyone outside the flocks for help except my mother!" Max argued, "He's just another School cronie looking to get us captured."

"Max," I pleaded, "be realistic. We're in North Carolina and your mom's in _Arizona_! You look ready to collapse as it is, so do you honestly expect me to believe you'll survive long enough to get there?"

"But-" Max started.

"I agree with Terra, Max," Fang said firmly, "we don't have any other option than to take whatever this guy can give us."

Max would have argued longer, but she was overcome with a dizzy spell and had to sit down. She was breathing very heavily and her brand-new clothes were being soaked in her cold sweat.

"Tell him we trust him," I told Fang, who was already typing the reply, "but see if we can get a name from him at least."

Fang: "All right, I trust you, but I need to know your name."

Unknown: "I can't tell you my last name, in case The School is trying to trace this chat, but my first name is Walter. P.S. Max's bullet wound should be fine until you get to me if you keep it clean and keep a cloth tied slightly tight around it as a bandage. If you want our assistance, press Enter to learn where to go. If not, press Backspace and this entire chat will be erased. Hope to see ya soon."

"Last chance to turn back, do we want his help?" I asked, holding Ari in my arms again—at least this library allowed pets on leashes. And we did buy the two canines collars and leashes just so we could get them in. Ari had a spike collar ("I'm tough!" he childishly retorted at the sight of it) and a black leash and Total had a red collar with a matching leash. After a unanimous silent decision, Fang hit the 'enter' button. Another message appeared on screen.

_Enloenc. Three days 7:00 pm. Look for a short girl with a backpack. Ask her what would it be like if you had wings and could fly. If she answers with "you would know, wouldn't you?' She'll direct you to me. Don't be late._

_ Enloenc? What's Enloenc?_ I thought to myself. Fang quickly closed down the message screen and turned to look at us.

"Alright. We have a good situation ahead of us. We have food, shelter, and first aid waiting for us, if only we knew where to go." He started, sarcasm in his voice. Talon was on another computer, looking up what "Enloenc" could mean.

"It's a high school in Raleigh, North Carolina." He replied, looking back at us, "the 'nc' meant it's in North Carolina."

"…What the heck, man. I can see where we are and where Raleigh is, and there's quite a bit of distance there. Can Max make it all the way there?" I asked, worried.

I looked over at my friends, and they looked at me, then looked at Max to judge whether she could in fact make it.

"Exactly how far is it from here?" I asked Talon, who quickly made guesstimate in his head.

"About a three and a half hour flight from here." Talon said, "if we didn't stop, we'd get there tonight. I don't know why he put the meeting so far ahead."

"Alright then," Max said, recovered from her dizzy spell, "Let's go already."

As we took off at the edge of town, I noticed that Max looked very pale and very weak. I then realized why "Walter" had given us three days, because we'd need that long so Max could rest. I prayed that this "Walter" person could help us. If not, I don't think Max will last much

Talon

Three days later, we were flying over downtown Raleigh at about 6:50. The reason we were so late getting there was that Max's condition had gotten much worse, with the skin around the bullet hole turning green and reeking to high heaven, so Fang had to fly while carrying her. I was worried. I'm no doctor, but the fact that dark lines of skin, that weren't veins, were spreading on Max's leg was a bad sign.

My own pain seemed pathetic in comparison. I was still recovering from my 'nerve attack', so I could barely fly on my own, but I sucked it up so Demi could help Bree fly. We flew around looked a while for Enloe before finding it nestled in some suburban forested area.

We landed behind some trees and surveyed the area. There was only one person in the parking lot of the school. A short girl with long blonde hair that looked in her mid-twenties was looking around impatiently while glancing at her watch.

"All right Talon," Iggy whispered, "go ask her the question to see if she's our guide."

"Why do I have to do it?" I said, "I'm recovering right now. YOU should do it."

Terra interrupted our squabble before it escalated.

"Just shut up and go Taly," she said, "I don't want to hear any whining from you."

"Fine," I said, "but you all owe me for this if she isn't our guide and I royally embarrass myself."

I silently walked up behind the short girl, trying not to give away where everyone was hiding. When I got close enough, I prepared to ask her the question, but she spun around and cut me off.

"Who are you," she asked harshly, obviously she was not happy to be standing in a parking lot at night.

"Oh, I'm just looking for someone," I said out of instinct.

"Really, I'm supposed to be waiting for somebody," she replied, "But if they don't show soon, I'm bolting."

After we stood there silently for a few minutes, I decided to just get it over with and be prepared to run for my life if she wasn't our person.

"Wouldn't it be great if had wings and could fly?" I asked.

I swear, her eyes got as big as dinner plates.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" she squealed in delight; it took all I had not to clutch my ears in pain, because sensitive ears + hypersonic squeal= **not good**, "I thought my boyfriend was just pulling my leg about the whole 'the Flocks are coming here' thing."

I signaled everyone to come out from behind the trees, and her eyes swelled from dinner plates to beach-ball size. I could see she was holding back from squealing as loud as she could again, a restraint I was very grateful for.

"I'm Jessica, Walter is my boyfriend, but just call me Jessie," she said, "I'm a big supporter of the Flock. I've kept track of the Old Flock ever since they appeared on the news a few months ag-"

"Yeah, yeah," Max said rudely, "can we cut the 'biggest fan' crap and go see this Walter guy already?"

I noticed Max looked was white as a sheet, and was drenched with a cold sweat. Overall, she looked like complete and total crap. Jessie obviously didn't care about that though.

"Don't get pissy with me when it's **you** who obviously needs **our** help right now!" Jessica countered with the sharp-edged wit of a master.

Max would have made a sarcastic and insulting retort to that, but she had passed out.

"I can take her in my car if you don't mind." Jessie offered.

"…Okay," Fang said hesitantly, "that'll make it easier to fly,"

"Alright," Jessie said after loading Max into her car, "just follow my car to the neighborhood, then just land in the yard of the blue house."

We took off and had a short flight south to a quiet neighborhood in the peaceful countryside. The three-story blue home stood out like a sore thumb in the tan and brown of nearly every other house in the neighborhood. We saw Jessie pulling Max out of her car and carrying her into the house.

**Next Chapter:**** Meeting Walter**


	21. Max's Surgery

**This Chapter:**** In this chapter, we meet "Walter", the mystery benefactor that offered assistance. Is this guy for real? Find out! Also, as an executive decision, I'm shortening the average chapter length from 2-3000 to 1000-1500. This will help spread the story out. Please read and review. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

We landed in the driveway and followed her into the humongous house through a door in the garage. It was considerably colder inside the house; enough to make us all shiver.

Just as I was about to ask Jessie about it, we heard movement upstairs.

"Sorry about the cold," a laid-back voice from upstairs yelled down, "But I can't stand the heat. Makes my air-conditioning bill skyrocket during the summer, but you do what you have to."

We all turned to the stairs to see a young man in what looked like a doctor's outfit, except that instead of a suit underneath his lab coat, he had a t-shirt and jeans. He ran a hand through his extremely short, spiked, dark brown hair while he walked down the stairs.

"I'm Walter Johnson, the one who sent you the message." He said with a laid-back, but professional air around him, "Just call me Walter though."

As I took in my surroundings and started cataloging possible exits, I noticed that Walter's house was _huge_!

"Do you own this entire house?" I asked.

"Yep," he replied with a warm smile, "My parents…no longer live here, and my sibling isn't planning on coming back anytime soon, so I take care of it."

The way he said "My parents" had an undertone of anger to it, which he had tried to hide. My eyes picked up the subtle clench of his jaw and tightening of his lips, and my ears could hear the strain in his voice to keep calm. It got me curious, but I didn't feel like being nosy, so I let it go.

What struck me as most interesting about Walter were his eyes. I only got a glimpse of it, but as he mentioned his family, under his wire-rimmed glasses, while his face was smiling, his eyes flashed a look that had an immense depth to them like the eyes of the Old Flock, eyes that knew things that normal people should never know.

But as soon as he saw that I was looking, it disappeared. I had no way of knowing how legitimate Walter was, but I had to admit he had piqued my curiosity.

Fang was apparently in 'really stressed out mode' and was reaching the limits of his patience with all of us for seemingly ignoring Max's wound.

"Can we please skip the 'so happy to finally meet you' crap!" he said darkly, "Max needs medical attention!"

"Sure, but you don't have to be in such a hurry," Walter said calmly, "I gave you instructions to make sure Max would be fine until she got here,"

His eyes flashed with realization and locked on Fang's.

"…you did put a clean bandage on it like I told you to, right?"

Fang said nothing, glancing at the bloody strip of his once clean shirt that we were forced to use as a bandage. Walter slapped his forehead and groaned loudly.

"God, you people really do need help, and not just the medical kind!" he said exasperatedly, "Jessie, could you get Terra changed and brought downstairs to the operating table please?"

"Sure love, I'll be down with her in a few minutes, so get everything you need ready down there." She replied.

While Jessie prepped Max for surgery, Walter brought us into his basement and showed us around while looking for medical supplies that were scattered around the entire floor. Walter's basement was really impressive; one side had a home theatre system with a HUGE TV screen with digital cable.

The other side looked like someone cut out a doctor's office and pasted it inside the basement. There was a large operating table, two hospital beds, and medical supplies galore.

Terra told the younger kids to go and watch TV while Max was being treated so they wouldn't see all the blood and stuff. No one seemed to dislike the idea, because the second Terra finished talking, they were all plopped on the La-z-boy couches watching some cartoon show called Naruto.

"So Walter, what makes you qualified to give Max medical treatment?" I asked Walter, "because if you say that you're just a medical student or something, I swear I'll kick your butt."

Walter laughed a little.

"We may or may not look like, but Jessie and I are both certifiable geniuses in the areas of Medicinal Science and Art/Design," Walter explained, "I have two degrees in special scientific fields. I have dual-doctorates in Human and Veterinary Medicine.

"While Jessie has assorted degrees in Graphic design and Art. Jessie is also a rising fashion designer and makes all of mine and her clothes, as well as the entire _JesWic_ clothes line, so she'll make you guys some clothes if you need them."

"Don't put words in my mouth Waly," Jessie said, who was holding Max dressed in the 'hospital gown' patients wear.

"You mean you won't make the Flocks some new outfits?" Walter said, "and don't call me 'Waly', I am not a cube-shaped robot that saves a plant!"

I felt a personal connection to his suffering, with everyone calling me 'Taly' because they all know it irks me to no end.

"I never said I wouldn't do it," Jessie said, "I just don't want you _assuming_ I'll do things."

"Fine, lesson learned" Walter groaned, "just put Max on one of the operating tables so we can get started."

"Okay," Jessie said with a smile, knowing her attempted tease on her boyfriend had been a success.

While Jessie was busy finishing the last of the prepping for surgery. Walter told us that because Max's leg showed no exit wound and the surrounding area was infected, he would have to surgically remove the bullet and try and stem the infection. Walter was looking frantically for something, mumbling things like "I know I put it down here", and "where the h-e-double 'L' did I put them?"

After moving some comic books (I saw the name _Naruto_ again, must be pretty popular, or Walter's just a nerd), Walter held up a water bottle with what looked like worms in it and said,

"Here they are, the little maggots. Finally I can start the surgery; after of course I let these guys loose on Max's leg-"

Fang did not seem happy about the idea of Walter pouring bugs on Max's leg, which is probably why he grabbed Walter's collar and slammed him into a wall.

"You're going to put bugs that _live_ in filth on Max's already infected leg?" Fang yelled. "WHAT KIND OF INSANE DOCTOR ARE YOU?"

Walter just calmly grabbed Fang's arm with a grip strong enough to make Fang flinch, and looked into Fang's eyes.

"I'll tell you what kind of doctor I am," he said normally, "I am the kind of professionally trained doctor who follows the procedures he has been taught all his life and not one who listens to a fourteen-year old who gets ticked off when I try to perform one of these said procedures that have proven effective every time they're used.

Fang stood there, silent.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get started with the surgery now, or would you like to make me listen to your rants on things you know nothing about until Max's infection gets so bad I'll have to amputate it? I'm sure Max will understand that the reason she lost her leg was because you didn't let me put the "filthy" maggots on her leg that would have only eaten the dead infected tissue, leaving only healthy, live tissue. Now I will ask nicely before I have to get nasty, _get out of my way and let me save Max!_"

I never thought in my life that I'd see someone be schooled that badly, but what really creeped me out was that Walter's voice had never risen throughout the entire schooling. He had given no indication that he had even gotten irritated. I was awed by Walter's perfect self-control, something I had never been able to grasp.

Fang silently let go of Walter's collar and stood.

Walter, completely unfazed by what had just happened, walked behind the curtain to begin the operation. I don't know what happened next, because Max's surgery reminded me of Terra's gruesome wing transplant, and I instantly blacked out.

**Next Chapter:**** Dinner with Walter. **

**Author's Note:**** This marks the end of semi-daily uploads. I will now be uploading on a bi-weekly basis, one on Wednesday, one on Friday. I will also be requesting a number of reviews again :D That is all ^-^**


	22. What Happens in the Basement

**This Chapter:**** Max is in surgery, and Terra's feelings for Talon make a comical appearance! Please read and review. I will be expecting 5 different reviews by Friday, or the chapter will be delayed till next Wed. Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

Terra

I saw Talon looking at the curtain that kept us from seeing the surgery and the next thing I knew, his eyes widen, turn green and glaze over, his hair turned brown, and he clutched his head in his hands and fell to the floor. Luckily, I was standing near him and was able to keep him from slamming his head on the floor.

It took Jessie a while to figure it out, because she wasn't an expert in psychology, but she finally said that Talon probably had a case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Max's operation must have reminded him of the torture he witnessed, and his nervous breakdown was his mind trying to repress the memory.

"Guys, come help me get Talon on one of the couches." I yelled.

Juli, Bree, Demi, and Iggy helped me out, and I volunteered to sit and comfort him until he snapped out of it. The others agreed and went back to watching the younger kids.

I sat down next to Talon and laid him down so his head was resting in my lap. This helped calm down the images in his head, because his eyes closed and his hands stopped clutching his head. I tried my hardest to not feel guilty that I was the cause of Talon's pain, but that didn't work out.

Even though Talon had improved when his head was in my lap, he wasn't out of the memory yet, because he was still shuddering, his eyes, while they were now closed, were squinted tightly shut, and he was still mumbling.

After a while, the littler ones decided that Talon was okay with me and went back to watching TV and ignored us. Juli and Bree were called over to help Walter with the surgery, and for Bree to have her burned arm treated.

Fang was still brooding in the corner and Demi and Iggy were keeping an eye on the littler kids; I was left holding Talon like a big teddy bear with him asleep in my arms…with no one watching us. That brought back the memory of when he fell asleep on me while in the elevator going to our room at the School, and how nice him being close to me felt.

After an hour, Talon's nightmare had ended, and he drifted instantly from that to fast asleep. I overheard Walter saying things that made it sound like he was close to being done with the surgery. But I wasn't really paying all that much attention to that, because I was very preoccupied with the boy sleeping on me.

Looking at his sleeping face, I was reminded of when I kissed him in his sleep after his outburst at us over Father. The memory of that kiss made think of an idea that made me blush as red as a tomato.

I quickly looked around to see where everyone's attention was. Nobody was giving a thought to us, but they were completely **glued **to the TV screen. I made a quick mental note to never buy the Neo-Flock a TV if we settled down somewhere.

Before I lost my nerve, I quickly kissed Talon's forehead, which made my fading blush flare up again. I was looking at everyone to make sure they hadn't seen anything when I heard Talon's voice.

"I love you…Terra…" Talon murmured groggily, "do you love…me back?"

I was going to die from embarrassment; had he been awake the whole time? If he knew I had just kissed him, I would spontaneously explode.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw he was just dreaming and was still fast asleep. Well, I thought, since he's asleep and won't hear me, why not tell him how I feel? I leaned my head close to his.

"Yes Talon, I do love you back." I whispered.

It was probably just my imagination, but his sleeping face just seemed to light up at that statement. Just then, I noticed his mouth…his lips…and I got a feeling of butterflies in my stomach. I found myself bending down towards Talon's lips subconsciously, and what surprised me was the fact I _wanted _it.

I was about an inch away from kissing Talon when Walter burst from behind the curtain.

"The surgery was a success!" He yelled happily, "Once the anesthesia wears off, you can all talk with her."

The sudden noise woke Talon up…with my face inches from his. I barely contained an 'eep' before pushing him-more like catapulted him-onto the floor, flat on his face.

All Talon could get out was an "ow" after peeling his face off the concrete floor, while holding his now bloody nose. While everyone stared back and forth between my blushing and Talon's bloody nose wondering what the heck had happened, Max's flock quickly made their way over to Max. Fang was the first to get to Max, because he practically _flew_ over to her.

"Hey Max," he said, trying to hold back a smile and maintain his 'too cool for school' persona, "how are you feeling, surviving a bullet wound and all?"

"A lot better actually," Max replied groggily, "except I still feel nauseous because I know that there're _maggots_ literally eating my leg right now. Don't look, or you'll barf."

Obviously, this warning came too late for Nudge, who apparently looked and had to run outside before tossing his cookies all over the lawn.

"Yeah, that happened the first time I saw it myself," Walter laughed from his place on his couch, "but on a serious note, don't disturb the maggots; Once they're finished, they'll be fat and easy to gather up, and after a final cleaning, Max's leg will be on it's way to a full recovery."

Everyone in the flocks smiled and exchanged celebratory high-fives.

"But Max," Walter continued, "I am personally surprised you lasted as long as you did, because that infection, slight blood poisoning, and blood loss would have killed a physically fit and healthy adult. Only your will to live and your accelerated healing factor kept you alive, but even then, you would have only lasted maybe…five to six more **hours** before the infection and blood poisoning became things that would have been far beyond my ability to heal."

I was expecting we had cut things a little close with the time situation, but I wasn't expecting _that_ close. I suddenly noticed that Bree and Juli weren't around; they had been called to help Walter half an hour ago, and hadn't been seen since.

"Walter," I asked trying to hide suspicion and worry, "where are Juli and Bree?"

"Oh yeah," Walter said, "they went upstairs."

"Why?"

"Well, apparently, your flock-mates are quite squeamish, because as soon as I told them to make sure none of the maggots fell on the floor, they asked if they could leave, so Jessie recruited them to help with dinner. And now that I think about it, dinner should be ready by now."

Just as he finished, Jessie called us upstairs to eat. Walter restricted Max to the bed, so Fang promised to bring her some food. As we stepped onto the first floor, I only then noticed how large of a house that Walter owned. It was full of open spaces, making it relaxing for the claustrophobic us. Every room was painted a different color; the living room was a bright green, the kitchen was a creamy yellow, and the dining room was colored the most beautiful shade of red I've ever seen.

Speaking of the dining room, when we got to the dinner table, it looked like a feast had been prepared for a king. Jessie and Walter both sat down and started piling food on their plates while us bird-kids just stood and stared at the food like we were…well…starving genetic hybrids whom haven't eaten a decent meal in days.

"Well," Walter said, sounding surprised, "is this dinner or an art gallery? Sit down and stuff yourselves 'till you're FAT!"

I made an executive decision that I liked Walter.

**Next Chapter:**** Walter and Talon explore The School's Database**


	23. Researching with Walter

**Author's Note: ****I apologize to all of you for a lack of updating. I've been super busy getting my black belt and preparing for a tournament on the 29****th****. Starting next week, I should be back in my flow. Thanks for your patience**

**This Chapter:**** Talon and Walter probe the School's database for information. Please read and Review! I WOULD LIKE SOME REVIEWS PLEASE! Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

His comment was all the invitation we needed to launch ourselves at the feast. There was home-made pizza, honey baked ham, biscuits, sandwiches, every type of fruit you could think of, soups and chowders-yes, there is a difference between the two-and don't get me started about the desserts.

Jessie and Walter both caught my attention when they both had filled their plates four times with food without slowing down. Jessie must have noticed me looking, because she stopped halfway through her fourth plate and said she was full. I could tell by the look on Angel's face that Jessie was lying.

Forty-five minutes later, everyone except Talon and Walter were ready to pop. Talon and Walter were in a 'competition' of sorts to see who could eat more than the other. They were both on their eleventh plate of food, and it was still unclear as to who would win.

On his thirteenth plate of food, Talon leaned his head back and started moaning "no more, please no more" over and over again; but Walter just kept on eating, and eating, and eating. Finally, Walter reached his sixteenth plate.

"Alright, I think that's enough for now." he said with a content smile.

Dear God, where did he put it all? This guy alone ate as much food as all of the flocks' guys combined. No normal human could possibly eat that much in one sitting. While I still decided I liked Walter, I flagged him for future research. For now, I just acted like he had just been really hungry.

"Love," Jessie groaned to Walter, "could you not be a garbage disposal every time you eat a meal?"

"Oh, don't complain." Walter replied, "I save us a lot of money due to the fact we never have to buy Tupperware."

I don't know what Tupperware is, but Jessie apparently couldn't argue with Walter's logic, so she just got down to an important issue we had failed to address.

"Where are all of you sleeping tonight?" she asked, "I don't know if you'd prefer to sleep in the trees outside or in the house, but either way, Walter has room."

Walter had already partially answered the location question when he told the Old Flock that Max was bed ridden for the next two days. So obviously, the Old Flock decided to stay inside. My flock had never been forced to sleep in trees, we were used to a bed and pillow scenario; I doubt we could've slept at all if we tried to sleep outside.

"We'll stay inside too," I told Jessie, "if that's okay."

"It is," she said, "you can sleep anywhere in the house except the Master bedroom, because that's where Walter sleeps."

Suddenly, Jessie glanced at her watch and slapped her forehead.

"(Insert explicative here), I'm late," she yelled in frustration, "I have to get home, otherwise I can't get my clothing supplies until tomorrow. I have to go, bye." Walter helped her gather the few things she brought in with her. Just before she walked through the door, Walter and Jessie exchanged a small kiss and said 'goodbye' to one another. Walter looked a little frustrated and a little happy at the same time.

"We've been in love as long as we've known each other, yet she still won't move in with me," he said, "oh well though, it's the guy's responsibility to follow his girl's wishes. That's just how love works, you know?"

When he said 'love', I had to forcefully suppress the memory of what had just happened in the basement between Talon and I from re-surfacing. The rest of the Neo-Flock decided to sleep upstairs in the kid's rooms. Before we headed up the stairs, Walter handed us each a sleeping bag.

"There's one bed in the girl's room and bunk-beds in the guy's room," He said before heading into the computer room, "so fight amongst yourselves to see who gets the beds. Good night."

I won the bed in the end of course, so Juli, Bree, Lexis and Zell all slept in their sleeping bags on the floor. I stayed up for hours trying to forget the romance that my mind kept placing between me and Talon, but I just couldn't. Just before I fell asleep, I could've sworn I heard footsteps going down the stairs, but it was probably just my imagination.

Talon

I crept down the stairs as quietly as I could, hoping I wouldn't wake anyone up in the process. I wanted to talk to Walter about the Neo-Flock's emerging powers, especially my invisibility skill. I found him in the computer room, working on medical files of some sort.

"Yes Talon, did you want something?" Walter asked when I entered the room.

I knew he hadn't seen me, because I was directly behind his field of vision, plus, I had gone invisible to reduce the chance of being spotted by anyone in the Flocks.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked, "I'm invisible."

"You may be invisible," Walter said with a laugh, "but you're not inaudible, I heard you open the door. Also, I have motion sensors placed at every major doorway, window, and air vent. In the doorways, I have two sensors each, one at about mid-calf level, the other at about chest level. The only reason I do that kind of thing is because I'm a little paranoid that someone will try to break in while I'm asleep. Every time someone trips one of these sensors, it sends a signal to my watch, and my computer. They both display which sensor was tripped, how long ago it was tripped, and probable suspects of what tripped it; so I knew you were coming downstairs the moment you stepped out of your room."

"Cool," I said, "but a little creepy."

_Why would a vet/doctor be so paranoid to the point of motion sensors?_ That was definitely strange. And where would a normal person get motion sensors that told him what might have tripped them. I didn't say anything about it, but I did ratchet my suspicions up half a notch.

"Being a little creeped out is probably justifiable." He laughed, breaking me out of my thoughts "So did you want to talk to me about something? Or are you stalking the house for a mouse?"

Walter kept confusing me. On the one hand, he was warm, open, and helpful. But on the other hand, we knew next to nothing about his past. I still felt I could trust him, but I decided not to trust him _completely_ yet.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you," I replied, "A few people in the Neo-Flock, including me, are developing…_powers_."

I thought he might take this as a joke and laugh at me, but he didn't; he just sat there, turned away from me.

"What kinds of powers?" Walter asked, still with his back to me, "apparently, all of you bird-kids have abilities or powers built into your genetic code, so developing weird skills isn't all that weird. Specifically Talon, what's _your _special skill."

"Well, I can become invisible," I said.

"Really," Walter said, a slight suspicion in his voice, "Can you show me?"

I decided to play a funny trick on him.

"Yeah, just turn around and look." I said.

He spun around and looked straight at me, but I knew he probably wouldn't see my still-visible clothes in the dark room because I had a completely black outfit on.

"Okay, joke's over Talon, where're you hiding," he laughed.

"I'm right in front of you," I said, holding back the laughter, "turn on a light and you'll see my clothes floating in mid-air in front of you."

He reached over and turned on a desktop lamp that illuminated the whole room.

"All right, this is starting to get old Talon," Walter said, "quit hiding and show yourself."

I turned visible about two feet away from him with my face inches from his. "AH," he yelled, "how did you turn you and your clothes invisible?"

I couldn't stop myself from cracking up at his reaction, but then I realized he made a mistake in what he said.

"You mean just my body right?" I asked, "I can't turn my clothes invisible with me."

"Yes you can Talon, because I couldn't see anything when I turned on the light." I held up my arm and turned invisible and sure enough, my clothes did too.

"Wow, I couldn't do that before," I said, "I must be getting better at it. This will definitely be useful in the future."

"But back to the point of why you're here." Walter said, trying to get back on topic.

"Oh yeah," I said, "can you tell us what abilities we might get?"

"No, I can't…" Walter said with a sly smile and I guessed at what the finish was.

"…but you know someone who does." I finished.

He pulled another chair to the computer and offered me a seat.

"Let me show you how I found out so much about you guys."

I got a quick look at what Walter was looking at before I came down. It was a picture of almost skeletal young children, all dressed in rags, surrounded by people that looked Middle-Eastern. Everyone was smiling except the boy.

There was something familiar about the boy, but I couldn't place it before Walter closed the picture and started to madly type in some seemingly random keys. A login screen came up and asked for name and password. Walter reached under his desk and pulled out a small disk and shoved it in a small disk drive on the side of the monitor.

Suddenly, the screen flashed red and a message appeared that read "SECURITY BREACH DETECTED, ACTIVATING SYSTEM FIREWALL!" Walter didn't seem fazed by it and the screen switched to a normal looking desktop.

"Welcome to Father's School desktop." Walter said with a grin, "how can he be of service tonight?"

While we delved into medical files and experiment logs, Walter explained that instead of trying to break through the firewall, the program simply merged into it, giving him full access to anything the firewall protected.

He scrolled down to a file labeled "Experiments 23-00 through 23-07" and clicked on it. The Neo-Flock's pictures appeared on the screen, along with some technical data that I couldn't comprehend. Walter was scanning the screen for something,

"P,p,p,p,p…" Walter muttered to himself, "Here we are: Programmed skills and abilities."

He double clicked and a chart came up on the screen. I saw my name next to a number, followed by a picture of me and all of my statistics. I hated being labeled a number by anyone, but what really gets me down is what those maniacs had done to me.

I have more animal DNA in my genes than anyone else I know of. I'm not even sure I could be called human anymore, only eighty-five percent of me is. Terra used to keep telling me that since I could laugh, cry, and love like a human, I was still at least human at the core, but I wasn't as sure as she was.

"Uh Talon," Walter said, "could you stop muttering to yourself, it's kind of distracting."

"Oh, sorry," I said.

We found my powers and abilities section and Walter pulled it up.

Experiment 23-04 AKA Talon

Genetically Programmed skills and abilities

Complete invisibility, including wings, clothes, and anything in contact with a major portion of skin. Potential for ability: Unknown, further tests needed.

Infrared + Night-vision: Grants completely undeterred vision in the dark, able to see the body heat of other living things.

Hyper-sensitive senses: excellent for detection and surveillance missions, weakness lies in the augmented sense of touch, which reacts more to pain due to the increase.

Transformative ability: Failure, only 34% feline transformation. Activates at will and can be maintained indefinitely. Only ears, tail, claws, and cat-like abilities like switching from bipedal to quadra-pedal form at maximum transformation stage.

The last portion interested me a lot, because I didn't know I could transform like Terra could. Well, according to the file, my transformation power was a failure, so mine wouldn't be as dramatic as Terra's. While it excited me that I could transform, the news seemed to mock my sadness over being less human by telling me I could be even more animal-like.

Walter and I stayed up all night reviewing everyone's files. Finally at 3:00 AM, Walter ordered me to get some sleep.

**Next Chapter:**** Terra's Prank on Talon, and the Flocks' first day off!**


	24. The NeoFlock's First Day Off

**Author's Note: ****I apologize to all of you again for a lack of updating x3x. I've been super busy with trying to earn Eagle Scout, I thank you for your patience.**

**This Chapter:**** Terra and Bree play a prank on Talon, then Talon invites Walter to spar with him…what could **_**possibly**_** go wrong? Please read and Review! I WOULD LIKE SOME REVIEWS PLEASE! Then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories! They are awesome! **

I slowly made my way up the stairs, turned right to walk down the hallway, and ran straight into Terra, knocking her over. After helping her get up, I heard a small jingle of a bell from behind her.

"Terra," I asked, "do you hear a bell ringing, or am I finally going crazy?"

"No Taly," she said with coy smile, "that's just Walter's cat playing with a toy mouse."

Sure enough, a black cat walked out from behind her with a toy mouse in its mouth. I hadn't even known that Walter had a cat.

"You know, I wonder…" Terra said with a evil gleam in her eye which I knew was directed at me.

"Terra, why do you have that look on your face?" I asked, worried about what she was planning.

She bent down and took the toy mouse from the cat, and threw it down the hallway. I knew she was going to throw this in my face, but my cat instincts completely took over and ordered me to do two things and two things only, right then, "CHASE AND CATCH!"

I ran after the mouse and pounced on it the moment I was within jumping distance. Only after I had it in my mouth and was kicking at it with my leg did I realize what the heck I was doing _in front of Terra_. She was cracking up and the end of the hallway, holding her sides and in tears.

"Bree, did you get that?" she said, "please tell me you got that!"

"Oh yeah," She said happily, "I got it all. Every. Last. Detail. On camera."

Did she just say, "on camera?" Oh crap, they had videotaped me chasing, pouncing on, and playing with, a toy mouse. They weren't going to let me live this down, so I decided to play my own trick to freak them out a little bit.

Terra started walking towards Bree to give her a high-five on their new blackmailing scheme success, I shouted in mock pain when she walked behind me.

"OW!" I yelled, rubbing my tail where I pretended Terra had stepped on it, "Watch where you're walking, you just stepped on my tail!"

Terra and Bree both looked, and as real as the whiskers on my cheeks, was a black tail, twitching every now and then.

"Um, Talon, when were you going to tell us you grew a tail?" Terra asked nervously, while knocking on my head with her fist.

"Stop it!" I yelled in protest, "you'll hit my ears!"

"What are you talking about Talon?" Terra said, "your ears are on the side of your head, not on the top…"

But, because I loved freaking her out, I made my cat ears form along with my tail. Both of the girls were now screaming, "Talon's turning into a cat, do something, anything!"

"Relax," I told them after I let them freak out for a while, "this is just a transforming ability like Terra's, except it's not complete one. The only other things that I can form are claws."

To prove it to them, I focused on forming the claws. After it was all said and done, they both seemed to take it more easily, maybe it's because Terra's transformation goes even further and turns her into a killing machine; for me, according to Bree, it just makes me look cuter, which is a BAD THING because 'cute'='target for 'flockmailing'.

During all of the commotion, we completely forgot that the others were still sleeping. Demi staggered out of the room and silently walked up to us, eyes filled with bloodlust.

"What's up Demi?" I asked while de-transforming.

He just glared daggers at us.

"SHUT YOUR FREAKING MOUTHS AND GO TO SLEEP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, "IT'S THREE IN THE FRIGGIN' MORNING! GOD!"

From other places in the house we heard replies of "Amen" and "I second that". Being completely embarrassed, Terra and Bree slunk back into their room while I stayed on the couch downstairs, curled up in a ball. Stupid cat habits.

The last thing I think I remember before falling asleep was Terra pulling a blanket over me. But she'd never do a sweet, kind, caring, selfless thing like that for me. Would she?

Terra

I woke up the next day at around 11:00 AM, groggy and ready to sleep some more.

"You reap what you sow Terra," Demi said with a smile, "you wanted to get some blackmail on Talon, so you stayed up really late."

I smacked him upside the head because I was **tired** and I wasn't taking any crap from anyone. Surprisingly, we weren't all that hungry when we woke up. A nice change from the norm, I had to say. When everyone was up and about, Walter called everyone into the living room.

"All right everyone," he said, not looking tired in the least, "we've come to the worst part of your visit, the ground rules."

I saw the Old Flock grin to each other, like they didn't really care what the rules were.

"Rule number 1: you are not allowed to fly during the daytime, or my redneck neighbors will shoot you with their shotgun. Rule number 2: you clean the plates you eat off of. Rule number 3: you cannot run in the house. And my most important rule of all: NO YELLING IN THE HOUSE! It's unnecessary due to the intercom system that runs through the entire house. That is all I ask of you while you are here with me. Any questions? And Max's flock, I am well aware of your rule-breaking habits, and I'm not afraid to punish you."

Nobody raised their hands, so Walter took that as everybody understood him. "Moving on, I'll explain what you **can** do during the day. You can: work out, go on the computer, practice archery, shoot the BB rifle, watch TV, or just ask my approval for something and I might give it, and any of you can come with me when I need to go into town for stuff, as long as you don't draw attention to yourselves. Except for Bree and Max, you still need to rest for a day or two before you can be physically active. And yes, I factored your accelerated healing factor into that time."

I heard both Max and Bree silently say "dang".

"That's all I have to say, so do what you want until Jessie gets here."

We all sort of split up into different groups. Walter had **a lot** of stuff that we could play with, ranging from wiffle bats and balls to ziplines.

On a side note, Walter seemed to collect a lot of weird things; like guns, melee weapons, martial arts guides, scented candles, rocks, and anything related to the subject of cats.

Max's Flock, with the exception of Max, completely disobeyed Walter's rule and went for a fly, while we of the obedient Neo-Flock spent the next hour outside playing with some of Walter's practice weapons, the wooden sword, bo staff, you know, non-lethal. Walter only agreed to let us use them because apparently he had to practice himself.

Walter had picked up a bo staff and was twirling it in a smooth, flowing pattern while weaving it in and around his body like it wasn't even there. Every time he completed his pattern, he went faster and faster. Eventually, his staff was moving so fast, it was just a blur to our eyes. It must have been going incredibly fast, because it looked like even Talon's super-vision couldn't follow it. Suddenly, he stopped his staff on a dime and stood as still as a statue.

Wait a sec, how could a normal person be so coordinated and fast to spin a bo staff so that even _Talon_ couldn't follow it? My flock had all gone through martial arts training, and I know that our teachers often brought their weapons to train us with, so I knew Talon could easily follow the bo staff speed of a _master_.

"Phew," he said while straightening up, his back popping loudly ten times, "it's been a while since I practiced, so this is quite the workout."

"How did you get so good?" Talon said, "I could never do that in a million years!"

"Well," Walter admitted, "my **best** weapon is actually the short staff, which is about half the length of the staff I'm using now."

Talon was now completely mesmerized now by how cool the weapons looked. I sighed to myself, those boys and their little toys.

"Do you know martial arts Walter?" Demi asked, "It seems like you're very skilled."

"I know quite a few martial arts Demi," he replied, "I've been taking classes for most of my life, but I don't really have a set style, I guess I just kind of do my own thing."

"Really, you too?" Talon said with a look on his face I didn't quite like, "you want to spar with me?"

I immediately jumped between the two of them to keep a fight from erupting.

"Walter, don't do it," I warned, "I'm really the only one here who can beat Talon in a fist-fight."

"It's okay Terra," he said with confidence, "I know all about how Talon fights, so don't worry, I'll be fine."

Even though he said that, I was worried. Talon had a bad habit of going too far in a fight, regardless of whether or not it was a real one, and ends up hurting his opponent too severely.

"Terra?" I heard Jessie, who had probably just arrived, yell from on the deck, "could you come help me for a minute? I need some help in here please."

"Okay," I yelled, "be there in a second."

I looked directly at Talon and sternly warned him **not** to get carried away. He promised he wouldn't, so I went inside with Jessie to help her with her stuff. The last thing I saw outside was Talon and Walter taking their fighting stances. Walter had put away his staff and was just using his fists. I hoped that Talon kept to his promise.

**Next Chapter:**** Talon vs. Walter, should be easy for Talon, since Walter's a normal guy…right? **


	25. Walter Vs Talon

**Author's Note: ****I was very sad to see that no one reviewed after the update on Friday ;-; Anyways, we're getting into what I like to think is my forte' **_**Fighting scenes!**_** ^-^ **

**This Chapter:**** It's Walter vs. Talon in a friendly spar. I know you're wondering how long that'll hold up, so read on and find out. Please read and review, then read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories. They are simply FANTASTIC!**

Bree

Talon took his stance and Walter took his. They both stood there waiting for the other person to start things off.

"Well come on Talon," Walter taunted, "Are we going to fight or what? Or was that big challenge just an attempt to impress Terra and you're just a wimp?"

That got Talon's attention real good, because he leapt at Walter and threw a fast right punch straight to his face. It looked like it was going to connect, but at the last second, Walter twisted his head and torso and flowed with the punch in an invisibly fast blur.

In the process, he grabbed Talon's wrist with his right hand, punched his kidney with his left fist, and used the momentum from Talon's punch to throw him over his head and slam him onto the ground hard. All of that happened in seconds, so fast I could have blinked and missed it. It felt familiar to see those moves when I realized that Talon usually fought exactly the same way.

"You can't be spurred so easily and do an all-out frontal attack Talon," Walter said, "It just leaves you wide open for a counterattack. By the way, isn't that how you _usually _fight? You'll keep getting knocked on your butt if you're gonna be stupid and fight the way you suck at."

Now Talon was mad, not only was Walter taunting him, but also he was teaching him how to fight! I could tell that was more than irritating to Talon, because he ran towards Walter again, but this time, before Talon threw a punch, he zig-zagged so he was coming at Walter's right side.

Walter, instead of dodging back, took a step directly towards Talon and threw his arm straight out at his face. But Talon turned and dodged this and began to throw his punch. Walter brought his arm forward towards Talon's shirt, grabbed the material on his shoulder, and began to press his arm forward.

With the weight difference being so great, the only thing that Talon could do was either step back or try to hold his ground, but little did Talon know, but when Walter stepped towards him earlier, his right leg had gone behind Talon's, blocking a step backwards.

Suddenly, Walter swept his right leg back, knocking Talon off his feet, and then he threw Talon's back to the ground again with the arm that was pressing him. Walter had completely laid the smack down on Talon two times now, something that a normal person hadn't been able to do since when Talon was first learning to fight.

I was getting scared, because my brother never did like to lose in a fight. Talon shakily got off the ground and took his stance again, but this time he transformed so he could use his claws. I was about to call for Terra to come and help restrain him, because the already fast Talon would be even faster now, plus the claws could have killed Walter.

But Walter's lack of fear stopped me. That was something weird I noticed, Walter had never really showed any emotion at all during this fight, while Talon… well, you know, **did**.

"So, we're using weapons now," Walter said in his normal, laid-back voice, "Let me grab mine."

Walter walked into the weapon shed and grabbed his short staff. When he came back out, I felt a chill go down my spine and the air was quiet and felt heavier. Walter was good, really good. Both he and Talon knew what they were doing, which was good and bad at the same time.

Please let them not kill themselves by fighting. Please! As I was praying for the worst not to happen, Walter walked off of the deck and positioned himself in a clear path about twenty feet away from Talon. Talon was curling and uncurling his clawed hands, ready for some action.

Walter was slowly starting to twirl his staff around his wrist, picking up speed as he found the pattern. Talon probably knew that if he waited until Walter was going full speed, he wouldn't stand a chance, so it didn't surprise me that he started running for Walter full-speed.

What we all underestimated was the time it would take Walter to get to maximum speed with his short staff, because when Talon was a few steps away from him, Walter's short staff impossibly went from smooth flow, to inhumanly fast. And when I said inhumanly fast, I meant it, because despite how exhausting spinning that staff would be, Walter had not even broken a sweat or started breathing hard.

I watched on suspiciously, wondering how Walter, a normal human, could be that strong and fast. He didn't even _look_ strong. In fact, Walter's very skinny frame made me think he was an indoors-y nerd with no real strength. So what made him so good. I catalogued my suspicion for later, and returned my attention to the fight.

What happened next, I will remember forever. Just as Talon looked like he was in the clear for a punch, Walter's staff collided with the side of Talon's head. Talon's legs buckled a little, but he didn't fall, and I could see a trickle of blood streaming from where the staff had hit.

Before you could cringe and say "OUCH", Walter's staff cracked down on Talon's shoulder, and effectively crippled it for the rest of the fight, not that I thought it would last much longer, the way things were going. Walter effortlessly spun his staff back and resumed his blur of spinning.

The staff then rocketed to Talon's side, hitting hard and knocking the breath out of him. And instead of bringing the staff back, Walter just whipped it down and made a hard sideways strike to Talon's knee, which collapsed his leg instantly.

I hoped the "crack" I heard when the staff hit was just wood hitting bone. All of these strikes had happened in one smooth motion over the span of three seconds. But Talon didn't show any sign of stopping on account of pain. He shakily stood up, even putting weight on his injured leg, ignoring the pain. With his only good arm, Talon tried a desperate lunge to at least give Walter a wound from their battle.

But Walter had had plenty of time to see it coming, and his staff hit Talon's outstretched elbow, almost bending it the wrong way. Talon gasped in pain and stumbled back.

"Talon," Walter pleaded, throwing his staff aside, "please stop. You've lost. Losing is part of life."

"N-never!" Talon growled/stammered, the look in his eyes like a man possessed.

Talon attempted one feeble last attack by trying to spin-kick Walter's head. Walter ducked and spun under the kick, and ended up directly behind Talon. Before Talon could turn around, Walter grabbed his shoulders and held him there.

"It's time to end this, before you get seriously hurt" he said firmly.

In a move that looked evil enough to make a Hunter flinch, Walter pulled Talon's shoulders back and down, while his own knee shot up. According to Demi, I closed my eyes to avoid seeing the end, Walter brought his knee straight to Talon's upper spine, making the surrounding area spasm uncontrollably.

As soon as the knee hit, Talon had dropped to the ground like he was dead. I was about to tell Demi to help Talon, when Walter picked Talon up and brought him inside to start fixing him up as best he could.

In the end, the final tally was pretty humiliating.

Talon's injuries:Large cut on head, Broken elbow, Dislocated knee and shoulder, Slight internal bleeding, and Temporary paralysis

Walter's Injuries: Small bruise on hand from hitting it while carrying Talon through the doorway.

The result made me wish that Terra had asked _Walter_ to not get carried away during the fight.

**Next Chapter: Jessie and Terra have a little girl to girl talk. I would like some reviews please! I worked hard on this and would like you, the reader's, opinion! ;-;**


	26. Girl Talk

**Author's Note:**** In celebration of my last three days of school, I have decided to upload a chapter a day for each of my last days! ^-^ I hope you all enjoy them!**

**This Chapter:**** Terra and Jessie have a girl-to-girl talk as Jessie takes Terra's measurements. Please Read and Review! Then Read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories, they are really well-written.**

Terra

I had been helping carrying rolls of fabric into the house from Jessie's car when I saw a bloody and unconscious Talon in Walter's arms.

"What happened?" I yelled.

After a long, uncomfortable silence by the other side, I threatened to make them all match Talon if someone didn't answer me quick.

"Let's just say," Bree replied sheepishly, "you told the wrong person to not go crazy during the fight,"

"Walter?" I gasped in disbelief, "**YOU** did this?"

Walter seemed to think I was asking _why_ he had beat up Talon, when I was really trying to figure out the _how_ he did it.

"It wasn't my fault," he explained in his calm voice, "Talon pulled his claws on me, I just defended myself."

"You call _that_," I screamed, pointing at the bloody mass of bruises in his arms that used to be Talon, "DEFENDING YOURSELF?"

"Um," he replied, "yeah."

The only reason Walter didn't become a new brand of mincemeat when he said that was Jessie saved him by calling me upstairs for the fabrics I brought in with me. I gave Walter a glare that told him "_we'll be having a discussion later._"

I ran the fabrics up to Jessie and found her taking the measurements for Zell and Lexis' clothes. My little flocklings looked excited that they would be getting their own custom clothes from an actual fashion designer. To tell you the truth, so was I. Jessie finished and jotted the lengths down on a notebook.

"All right, you two are done," Jessie said, "go help Walter fix up Talon."

"What happened to Taly?" Lexis asked, her sweet voice and concern making her sound so innocent and adorable.

"Well," Jessie answered, "Walter and Talon got into a fight, and Walter got a little carried away and beat him up too much, that's why Terra was yelling at Walter a few minutes ago."

Both girls gave the same look of confusion I did when I found out Walter had beaten Talon. But they quickly hid it, like and ran down the stairs, where Zell was probably going to give Walter some of her patented "shock treatment." I wish I could've seen it. But Jessie needed to take my measurements so she could start making my new clothes.

As she was measuring, my mind drifted from my growing questions about her and Walter and started focusing on their relationship.

"Jessie?" I asked.

"Yes Terra?"

"How did you know you and Walter were in love?"

"Why do you ask Terra?"

"Just curious, because you two make such a good couple from what I've seen."

"Well, we aren't really all that alike, Walter and me. Walter's always helpful, and going out and doing things that get him noticed. He doesn't mean to, but he makes all sorts of friends and is well-known around here. I keep telling him I don't like him being known so much, but it just happens naturally with him."

"By the way," I quickly interrupted, "I'm really curious about this; where did you and Walter first meet?"

What happened to Jessie was what I had seen happen with Max and her Flock whenever they remember their days at the School. Her hands stopped momentarily, then started shaking badly, so much that she dropped the measuring tape. Her eyes looked the same as Talon's just before he had his bout of PTSD in the basement; scared eyes that didn't want to re-see whatever the mind was bringing up. My suspicion was instantly replaced with concern, because she had obviously gone through something very traumatic around the time she met Walter, and I was opening old wounds.

"Jessie?" I said, trying to get her attention.

I reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

"Jessie!" I said loudly.

"Huh?…" she murmured, coming out of whatever she had been in, "Oh Terra, I'm sorry. To answer your question, I was in a bad place back when I met Walter, and he was the only thing that helped me pull through… So is there anything else you want to know?"

"No," I said a little too quickly, "I mean, I don't want to make you dig up bad memories on account of me."

A heavy silence spread between us while Jessie kept measuring me. The look on her face told me she now knew I was suspicious of her and Walter. Not really helping her case, she didn't do anything to get rid of them.

"So," Jessie asked quietly after a while, "You and Talon sure make a cute couple."

"Talon and I aren't a couple; he's like family to me." I stammered in reply.

I knew Jessie could see right through that, because my beet-red face gave me away completely.

"Well," Jessie said coyly, "would a 'sister' try to kiss her brother while he was asleep, or is that the way things are in your 'family'?"

I had no answer to that, so I just stood there, basking in the humiliation that Jessie knew what I had tried to do to Talon last night on the couch. Mortified, I prayed that God or whatever higher power was listening would send a lightning bolt to end my suffering.

"It's alright," Jessie laughed, "I'm not going to tell him how you feel. But you definitely should."

"WHAT?" I squeaked, "I can't do that; I'd be completely embarrassed and I wouldn't know how to say it. And what if I make a complete fool of myself"

"Fine, fine," Jessie said, giving me the "whoa nelly!" posture, "but if you don't soon, you might lose him."

This grabbed my attention like a slap to the face.

"What do you mean I might lose him?~" I asked in a worried voice.

"Oh nothing, I just thought I saw Juli looking at Talon earlier a little weird, that's all." Jessie said.

I felt my heart get as heavy as an anvil. I knew I couldn't compete with Juli in anything, because she always won. I didn't have a prayer.

"You really saw that?" I pitifully asked.

"Nope," she said, "I was just testing how much you felt for him, and I must say, you must really love the guy to be that obsessed with him."

Even as my blush flared up again, I laughed at her joke, because it was harmless fun between us girls; just as long as Jessie didn't tell anyone else.

**Next Chapter:**** Some slight filler, but later on, gets into some really **_**juicy **_**stuff! ^-^ Please review, it means the world to me when you do!**


	27. R and R: Rest and Research

**Author's Note:**** In celebration of my last three days of school, I have decided to upload a chapter a day for each of my last days! ^-^ I hope you all enjoy them!**

**This Chapter:**** Some filler at the beginning, then a mysterious picture…curious? Please Read and Review! Then Read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories, they are really well-written.**

Talon

I woke up feeling like I had been run over with a dump-truck, sat on by an elephant, and been put in a blender on "frappe', and all at the same time.

"You awake yet Talon," I heard Walter ask from next to me, "you've been out for hours; it's already 5:30 in the afternoon."

"Yeah," I grunted, "I'm up. Man, what happened? All I remember is that I was fighting you and you had just gotten your staff. After that, it gets all fuzzy."

"Well," Walter said, "I'm sorry to say this, but you lost the fight. Badly. I pretty much beat the living crap out of you, almost did some serious damage too, but I managed to hold back enough to not break your spine with my last attack."

So _that's_ why my back was killing me.

"You'll be needing a set of crutches so you can walk around. I dislocated your knee, so you can't walk on it for a day, so the kneecap can re-center itself. And also keep your arm in that cast, because I broke your elbow with my staff. I apologize for it, but you were going to slash my jugular with your claws, so there wasn't much of a choice. But if the information about how the Neo-Flock's healing factors are even more accelerated than the Old Flock's is true, you should be right as rain in a week."

Grabbing the crutches by my bed, I hobbled up the stairs to join everyone for a movie. Apparently, my wings were about the only thing Walter _didn't _injure during our fight, so I spread them out to let them stretch. Jessie and Walter both had looks of awe and admiration written on their faces.

"I'll never get tired of seeing that," Walter said, "I know you guys went through tough childhoods, but you all can do what humans have _dreamt_ of doing for almost all of their existence."

I thought about how willing I was to give it all up just to be normal. Walter and Jessie couldn't possibly have understood how inferior I felt to everyone around me.

While I was wallowing in self-loathing, the doorbell rang, and a voice called out.

"Walter, it's me, I've got your pizza."

"Be there in a sec Frank," Walter replied, "just let me get the check."

He must have seen our puzzled looks, because he went on to explain how his family had ordered from this pizza place every Friday night for the past 5 years, so the store always sent the same delivery guy. Walter grabbed his pre-written check and opened the door to a very happy looking pizza-guy.

"Frank," Walter said while giving him a high-five, "how are you doing?"

"Same old, same old, delivering pizza, barely making enough, but you know, it's what makes me happy. Here're your pizzas, and I must ask, are you having a family reunion or something, because not even _you_ can eat ten thick-crust pizzas in one night."

"Kind of, a lot of my friends are going out of town," Walter said, lying without batting an eyelash. "so I'm watching their kids for them. By the way, here's your money."

"Oh," Frank said, "well, I got to get going. Wow, a twenty-dollar tip! Thanks man, this will really help with birthday shopping. See you later."

"Give my best to Rebecca!" Walter called out.

"I will." Frank yelled back.

Walter closed the door and laid out the pizzas on the coffee table. I noticed then that Walter had some sort of aura around him that makes you want to trust him. His politeness, calmness, and wit just made you trust him in a way I didn't quite understand.

"I'll get the movie started, so you guys can dig in," he said, rummaging through binders of DVD's.

Since we were adequately fed all day, we didn't ravage the pizza, but we did eat a lot. Walter put in a comedy that made us all burst out laughing, even Fang was chuckling along with us.

By the time the movie was over, the little ones-don't tell Gazzy, or he'll get mad-were all fast asleep. Everyone except for me went upstairs to get some sleep. Me, I stayed on the couch and slept, because I doubt I would have made it up the stairs. I fell asleep feeling like I was part of a real family, a normal family. Personally, I didn't want it to ever stop.

_**Later**_

I woke up the next morning and found I had nothing to do. I had a crazy idea and decided to make Terra a gift. I decided to make a carved pendant out of some wood that Walter had in his basement. And since I'm all beat up and sore, it was about the only thing I could think of doing without causing pain.

As I got started, I keep wanting to make it more and more intricate, so I kept starting over from scratch again and again until I finally made one that I could live with. After it was finished, I used the tip of one of my claws which, like Terra's, can slash through wood like a hot knife through butter, to carve the words "_Terra + Talon 4ever"_. So call me a hopeless romantic if you must, but I thought Terra would like it. Now I had to find an occasion to give it to her.

That took only two days to finish though, and I was still mostly immobile. Walter suggested I play some games on his computer, and I got an idea. I decided to try and research Walter the best I could.

Going off the diplomas and degrees on the walls, I scoured the internet for Walter's past. When everything that was public checked out, I felt an itch in the back of my head that told me to check some more private things.

Enlisting the help of Nudge, who wanted me off the computer so she could look at fashion articles online, I looked at Walter's e-mail, past business schedules, and expenses. I was shocked to find that until a year ago, Walter had made frequent trips all around the United States, and a yearly trip to Israel. But this past year, he had made no trips at all.

What intrigued me most was his bank accounts. Nudge was able to access them, and it turned out Walter received close to two-hundred thousand dollars a year from an unnamed source.

We were still looking at the bank accounts when Nudge pointed out a folder in the corner, that she said gave off a very strange vibe. I opened it, and there was one file. I opened it, and inside there were a lot of pictures, all of Walter and Jessie when they were younger. I saw pictures of Walter in a martial arts uniform, Jessie eating ice cream, and both of them in dozens of different school scenarios.

But there was something strange. At the bottom of the list, there was the picture I had seen on Walter's screen the other night, of a group of dirty and starved children surrounded by Middle Eastern people. Now that I looked closer, I saw that the two oldest children looked very familiar. I looked at the date the picture was taken, and it was 32 years ago. I looked at the other pictures, and the earliest one of them was taken 25 years ago.

"Wait a second," Nudge murmured, clicking on random photos, "I just noticed something."

"What?" I asked, trying to piece it together myself.

"There isn't a single picture of Walter's parents anywhere here. And the dates don't add up."

The thought struck me, and I realized she was right. Looking around the house, there wasn't a single family photo anywhere. I would understand if Walter was on bad terms with his parents, but not even _one_ photo? It was like he grew up without parents.

Before Nudge and I could come up with any theories for why the dates on the pictures didn't add up, I heard Walter coming. I printed the picture of the group of children and stuffed it in my pocket. I quickly shooed Nudge away, opened up a video game, and started playing. Walter looked in and didn't suspect anything.

I, on the other hand, had a whole lot more to be suspicious about. I needed to tell this to Terra. But I realized if Walter was bad, he'd be able to keep an eye on us easily, so I had to just pray that Walter wasn't bad, and that I was just being paranoid.

**Next Chapter:**** Max makes an announcement that really doesn't go over well. Please read and review ^-^**


	28. Max's Executive Decision

**Author's Note:**** First real upload of the summer! ^-^ BTW, Lizziestar and I are going to be starting a joint fanfiction soon, so look for it within a few weeks, and definitely within the month! ^-^**

**This Chapter:** **Max makes one of her famous "executive decisions". Please Read and Review! Then Read **_**lizziestar**_**'s stories, they are really well-written.**

**The New Mission**

Terra

It had been four and a half weeks since we came to North Carolina. We'd done and seen a lot of things that _normal_ kids would have done. To be completely honest, it was the best time of my life.

Talon was following me around a bit more than usual, and he looked like he wanted to say something to me, but someone would always interrupt him. I bet he wants to talk to me alone for some reason-my more feminine side coming up with all sorts of reasons for that.

One afternoon, Max called both flocks into the basement for a meeting. Max didn't look happy at all, like she was about to be the bringer of bad news.

"I think we have to move on," she said, "at least my flock needs to. I can't decide what your group does, but I think you should leave with us."

I was blown out of the water, because leaving was the last thing on my mind.

"Why though?" I asked, "Why do we have to leave? We might have found a place to _stay_!"

Max's glance got cold and narrow.

"And how much longer do you think it will take for the School to realize where we are? How long do you think Walter or Jessie will last against an squad of Hunters?"

The thought hit me like a thunderbolt, she was _right_, we'd been putting them in danger just by staying here. Well, maybe not Walter, because of his crazy fighting skills, but definitely Jessie.

"…And also," Max added, "the last time we accepted help from people outside the flock, we were almost ambushed and captured by the School, because the person who was helping us was _actually_ working for the School."

"_What?_" I yelled angrily, "you do realize what you're saying right?"

"Yes, I do," Max replied, whipping her head to him, "and a lot of your flock mates suspect Walter, and you personally suspect Jessie too. Angel has been listening in on your thoughts, not on my say-so to let you know. And Nudge told me about what she found with you, Talon."

I looked at Angel and Nudge with disbelief. How could they tell Max what we were thinking?

"Walter eats too much, can move too fast, is too strong, and too well-coordinated for a normal person. There's no record of him before he was nine years old, he used to get two-hundred grand a year from an unnamed source, and you don't find him suspicious?"

I kept my mouth shut, but my hands curled into fists.

"And Jessie can't tell any of us about her childhood without freezing up." Max continued, "Can't you see what I'm trying to say?"

Walter's voice from the doorway startled all of us.

"And just what exactly are you trying to say when you say that Max?" he said with uncharacteristic sadness and disbelief painfully apparent, "you think I would perform your surgery, feed your monstrous appetites, put the people in my life in harm's way, just to get you captured? I've heard about your natural talent for hurting people and getting under their skins with your words Max, but I think they made a major understatement. And here I was, about to warn you that the School has found out where you are and will be here in about six hours and that I packed your bags for you, but I see you're not trusting me anymore, I guess you'll just be leaving ahead of schedule."

Walter then walked quietly up the stairs, leaving us all feeling devastated and guilty, and Max looking like a bad guy. She tried to play it off by claiming that Walter had probably called the School himself, but Angel told everyone that she had read Walter's mind, and everything he had just said was true, and that what Max had said had genuinely hurt him.

Max just shrugged it off like she didn't care. This pissed me off enough to get out of my chair and smack her a new one, but Talon beat me to the punch. I noticed that Fang was not doing anything in response to Talon's attack on Max.

I had thought that as soon as Fang saw Max being beaten up by Talon, he'd jump in and the two guys would duke it out until one of them won. I looked at Fang and saw he was paralyzed by an attack from Talon. Moving back to Talon, he was standing over Max, who was on the floor clutching her cheek.

"Why do you act like you don't care about what will happen to Jessie and Walter if you're wrong about them? Why are you so cruel?" he said angrily, his hair spikes turning that bloody red again.

Talon turned and walked up the stairs to talk to Walter, and I told my flock to follow suit.

Talon

I walked into Walter's computer room to find him sitting there with an almost glazed look in his eye.

"Walter," I asked, "are you alright?"

"No, not really," he said in a voice that was devoid of any feeling. Really, it was like someone had turned off his emotions, "Would you be alright if the person you've wanted to be like for years came to you, and you saved their life, and given so much to help, suddenly starts telling everyone that you don't even care about them?"

I felt sorry for the guy, really. He and Jessie had done so much for us: taken us to a private lake for swimming, giving our education a much-needed overhaul, helping us when we got hurt, making us all new designer clothes, playing video games with us, and most importantly, just being there for all of us and being a _true_ friend; and Max goes and tries to convince everyone that he might be one of the School's cronies, man, that must suck.

I decided to put away my suspicions as paranoia. I could tell Walter wasn't a School cronie, and since he had been there for us, I would be there for him.

"It's okay though," he said, "I understand where she's coming from. You guys don't really know who I am or what I did when you weren't around."

"Walter, I-" I started.

"Talon," he interrupted, "I know you're trying to help me, but I want to be alone for a while okay?"

I agreed and left the room. I went up to my room to see my backpack and a small sleeping pad packed and ready to go. Terra walked in and looked me straight in the eye, and asked me whether or not we should leave. I knew that if the Hunters attacked, Walter would probably have been fine on his own, but if he had to protect Jessie, he wouldn't stand a chance.

**Next Chapter:**** The Flocks prepare to leave, but will something hold them back? Please read and review ^-^**


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